Red Hair of Fate
by Rainbowsmoke999
Summary: Akane Uzumaki finally attends the academy and move on to be part of team 7. How will she react to a knuckle head clan mate, a pink headed fangirl, a revengeful Uchiha, and their new sensei Kakashi Hatake.Original title Akane Uzumaki.
1. Chapter 1- Enter:Akane Uzumaki

" Uzumaki Akane"

"Yes, Hokage-sama." a young redheaded girl replied.

"You no longer will be attending your private ninja classes." Lord third said as he placed his pipe down on an the dirty ashtray

Akane was a little surprise the hokage had set a meeting with her to discuss her private ninja classes. Her classes were private because she was being taught her clan's fuinjutsu, but what she did not know was that Danzo had requested the Hokage to not allow Akane to attend ninja academy. At first, the hokage was suspicious of the strange request, but the other village elders had agreed with Danzo allowing it and also requested Akane to join the Anbu after her private training because of how advanced she was. The Hokage was suspicious,but Danzo insisted and said it would be a benefit for the village to have a backup jinchūrik or someone to help control it. With no other choice the hokage agreed, but without telling Akane the reasons of private classes.

"You will be attending ninja academy, I gave it thought and I think that it would be good if you made it on a genin team and not be in the anbu right away."

Akane looked up at the hokage and thought it would not make sense for her not to join the anbu right away. First off she was not old enough to join the anbu and second she did not have the experience of a ninja.

"Very well then. It make sense, and in about an year from now I will be graduating correct?"

"Yes, you will graduate with the rest of your classmates if you pass the test" the hokage added.

"You know I will pass the test with ease" Akane flatly pointed out

"Of course, Akane-chan. Now then you better get on going, tomorrow will be your first day at the academy".

"Tomorrow?" Akane asked.

"Yes, and you will be attending Iruka's class and yes I have discussed this with him already. Now you get going you have a full day tomorrow understood"

"Hai! hokage-sama"

* * *

Akane walked out of the building, it was already evening. She walked home on the main road and as usual people were staring at her, because of her red hair.

How much she disliked the unwanted attention.

Her apartment finally came to view and she went up the stairs. she lived on the top floor where she had the only apartment, so the apartment was larger than then the rest of the others in the building.

The entrance, the floor was tile and the rest was tatami apartment is a large open space with the the walls being painted a dark beige, but to the far left/ the other side of the entrance were the tall, wide glass sliding doors that lead to the balcony, which gave a beautiful view of the village and the hokage mountain. Before the leading to balcony was the sitting area which consisted of a large was a chabudai with four cushions and two love seats surrounding it . Next to the sitting area was the dining area with a square dining table and four chairs. behind the dining area and into the left corner was the was the kitchen which was enclosed by the large counter connecting the front and back of the kitchen. The front counter had a solo stool where Akane always ate her to the kitchen was a hallway that lead to the office which connected to a bedroom, her bedroom, guest bedroom, and bathroom. On the wall next to the hallway in the far left corner was white long banner with the Uzumaki clan symbol in top middle. In front of the banner was the low rectangular table and a mat. The table had a picture and a Katana on a stand.

Akane took off her sandals and walked to the table with picture and Katana. she kneeled down on the mat she looked at the picture and katana, and sat there for a few got up and went to the kitchen making herself a meal and ate it at the counter. Once she had finished she took a long shower, then went to her room and changed into her pajamas, and prepared her bed and laid down on it " _Tomorrow is going to be a long day"_ she told herself and went to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2- First Impression

Akane woke up to the sound of her alarm beeping. It's 8 am. She got up and went to get dressed. She dressed herself with a mesh shirt with sleeves underneath a lavender sleeveless yukata top with a purple obi and the Uzumaki crest on the back along with navy blue shorts and fishnet stockings.

Stepping out of her room, she headed straight to the kitchen and made Tamagoyaki and rice. she made herself breakfast and then brushed her teeth and hair, looking into the mirror looked at herself. She had fair skin, a roundish face, sapphire pupil-less eyes and her most notable trait her shoulder length crimson hair which was parted to the right with bangs framing her face.

she walked out the bathroom towards the wall with the banner. She kneeled down and looked at the picture.

"Wish me luck". Akane said walked to the entrance and put on her black shinobi sandals and went out, locking the door behind her.

The bell at the academy rang, student saying bye to their parents for the day as they ran towards the academy's entrance doors.

As the final bell rang, Iruka's class was settling down, and then Iruka entered.

"Good morning, class"

"Good morning, sensei!" The class said lively

"Today we have a new student." announced Iruka and it was a cue for Akane to enter the class. As she step through that door and stood next to Iruka.

The class looked at the red headed girl and began to talk among themselves.

"Is that really her hair color?" a pink headed girl said

"Her hair is so red, like Beni shōga ." a chubby boy laughed, alongside other classmates. Akane the inside of her cheek.

"Class, settle down! That is no way to treat a new student" Iruka said loudly. Looking at Akane, who just stood there with expressionless face. "Why don't you introduce yourself."

Akane nodded, "My name is Uzumaki Akane."

The class began to talk among themselves again. "Wait.. is she related to the loser?" A student commented loudly. Everyone looked at her and then turned to the back corner where a blond boy sat.

"Well... she does look weird like him" a girl with long blonde in a ponytail said rudely.

Akane tried not to frown. She looked at boy everyone in the class was making comments about. "No... I'm not related to him. I have no family." Akane spoke up.

Iruka looked at her and wondered why she and Naruto shared the same last name. He had never heard of an Uzumaki clan before. He also wondered why she seemed different from all the other students he had previous did she suddenly enter the academy, why did she seemed more mature when she speaks, It was the complete opposite of Naruto. Iruka's thoughts ended when Naruto jumped out of the window of the class. ' _Looks like he's skipping again'_ Iruka sighed.

"Class that is enough" iruka shouted.

Everyone froze.

"Akane, why don't you sit next to where Naruto was sitting, he was the one with spiky blond hair and orange outfit."

Akane walked to her seat, everyone looked at her as she passed, and wondered Who was this mysterious red headed.

The day continued and Akane needed to learn how to deal with her new class. she was hoping the year will pass quickly, she hated her classmates.


	3. Chapter 3- Acadamy

It has been a couple of months since Akane started attended the academy.

Days became weeks and weeks became months. Since she was being taught private classes, Akane was advanced than most of her classmates. She was the top second in her class, just behind Sasuke Uchiha and above Sakura Haruno. On the topic of Sakura, Akane Hated her.

Sakura was smart, but was a fangirl of Sasuke Uchiha like most girls in her class.

In the the shinobi world people like Sakura will get killed or risk the lives of her comrades for being attached to someone who doesn't care for them,so she is basically weak and ignorant which in no doubt was the worst two combination a shinobi could have .

Akane was not the only one who disliked the fangirls, Sasuke also hated them as well. He had the same feeling and reasons as her and careless of what they felt for him. Sasuke also felt the same towards Naruto.

Naruto was a troublemaker, the class clown, the loser, and the most hated person in Konoha. Akane doesn't understand why he was so hated. He pulls pranks, but this was something else. She knew that they were both from the same clan but, she did not talk to Naruto. She understood what Naruto felt, they were both outsiders.

Akane once helped him find the page they had to work on in class and eventually lead to Naruto has asking for her help in class more often as the days past was the dead last in everything. He was also confused on everything, so when Naruto asked for her help, she helped him and gave him tips on how to study.

Akane learned that Naruto Uzumaki was not as stupid as everyone had believed, he did act slow, but he was observant as her. Akane knew that he was smart and strong, but Naruto was confused because he answered the questions on the test correctly but still managed to fail.

Akane compared her test to Naruto's and found that Naruto had answered most of the questions correctly, but were marked wrong. Akane had her suspicions of who was grading their test, she knew it was not Iruka since Iruka acted like a big brother figure to Naruto. She thought that it might be one students or villagers wanting Naruto to fail, but for what reasons. She did not have enough time to think of who was behind this, because eventually the class was told that they were going to be given new seats. Before, Akane moved to her new seat she told Naruto that not all good shinobi need a number on a piece of paper to say that they were a good shinobi, but that did not mean that he had to give up on learning. Akane and Naruto no longer sat by each other and never talked to each other ever since.

In the next three months, the class has been told to review all the lessons and jutsu in order to graduate. Akane was prepared, she knew that she was going to pass. She looked over where Naruto was sitting, he was frustrated. Naruto still failed all the test and homework given to him, plus he could not control his chakra enough to form a clone.

' _How will he graduate_?' She wondered. May be he had some sort of blockage in his chakra network? Or he had too much… No, that's unlikely. too much chakra to do one clone? Her mind began to wonder off. Even if she did Help Naruto, he won't graduate unless someone else would grade the test, given that someone wanting him to fail.

Three months finally came to an end. The graduation exam was pushed one week back, this gave Naruto hope. While the class was on break, Naruto walked over to where Akane was sitting.

"Hey! Akane-chan" Naruto said happily

"Oh, Hello Naruto"

" I know it's been awhile since, you helped me and well… I still need your help"

"Ok, what do need help on?"

" I need help on making a clone, every time I try to make one it looks sick and poof! it's gone."

"Hm, are you sure that you gathered the right amount of chakra?"

"Yea, I'm sure! I just don't get why I can't do this jutsu... I mean I can do a transformation jutsu just fine."

"Y-yeah" Akane remembered when Iruka told the class to do a transformation jutsu. Everyone transformed to Iruka-sensei except for Naruto. Naruto transformed into a naked woman, who had clouds barely covering her womanly parts, and claimed it was a jutsu he created called sexy jutsu. He also claimed it was powerful enough to defeat the Hokage. Iruka-sensei had a massive nosebleed was knocked out, for a moment. He a scold Naruto to not use that jutsu ever again. Akane cringed

"Akane-chan, are you alright?"

"What, oh.. Y-yes. Um… why don't you show me your clone"

"Alright!" Naruto got into position and started to gather up chakra. "Ok, I got this…" he made the hand signs: ram, snake,and tiger. "Bunshin no jutsu!"

Clouds of smoke appeared and cleared through showing a terrible clone.

" See, I did everything right and this appeared!" Naruto exclaim as he pointed at the clone, which took two step forward and fell on the ground, disappeared.

" Hm…" Akane began to think, he did everything perfectly and he does seem to have the right amount of chakra, then her theory of him having too much chakra was true.

"Akane-chan" Naruto said worriedly

"let's go to the Hokage" Akane got up and walked in a fast pace.

" W-wait, Akane-chan" Naruto ran after her " why do we need the old man's help?"

" I have a theory on why you can't use perform the jutsu" she said as she picked up her pace.

Naruto stopped to think " Wait!" Naruto now realizing he was behind "W-what theory! Aaaakane-Chan!" Naruto yelled as he ran trying to catch up with Akane.


	4. Chapter 4- Graduation

Akane and Naruto entered the hokage's building, They both snuck their way up to the hokage office since they are not allowed to visit the Hokage during school hours, but Naruto does it anyways. Finally reaching the hokage's office, Akane walks up to the door to knock, but was interrupted by Naruto

"Old man! We need your help" Naruto said as he barged in . Akane behind him as she was about to knock. She sighed.

"Naruto what did I tell you about skipping class!... Oh, Akane-chan you're here as well?"

" Old man, we're not skipping class... Not this time anyway" Naruto tried to explain

Akane once again sighed and spoke up " Naruto needs your help, He needs help trying to create a clone, but fails to create one. He seems to do the jutsu correct, but he seems to have too much chakra to create a clone"

" Hmm, is that so" The hokage said as he smoked his pipe as usual

"Oh, that was your theory!" Naruto looking at her with curiously

"Well then, Naruto come here. I'm going to teach you shadow clone jutsu" the hokage began to explain the jutsu to Naruto, Akane listen along to his instructions. Within minutes Naruto was ready to create a shadow clone.

"Ok, I think I got this." Naruto makes the tiger seal " Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" smoke cleared through there, next to Naruto was a perfect clone "wow! Akane-chan was right."

" Of course I was" she replied

" I wonder why I have so much chakra?" Naruto and Akane looked at the hokage

"It's getting late you should both start heading to class now" He replied dryly

"Lord hokage is right we have 5 minutes of our break left." Both student said their goodbyes and head back to class.

* * *

A week has passed since Naruto learned the Shadow clone jutsu and now the graduation exams were about to begin.

Akane was ready.

Akane sat on the edge of be bed and thought back before she had entered the academy. lord Danzo had asked the Hokage for her to be homeschooled in order for her to learn her clan's fuinjutsu. The hokage agreed and Danzo told her about her training and her joining the anbu. At first lord Danzo showed interest in teaching her. He had given her books on many subject from shinobi history to Chakra theory, Danzo did not personally teach her, but it was his wife Yuka. Yuka-sama taught her the basic rules of fuinjutsu, but she mostly taught her the academics since she claimed to be more essential. Yuka-sama was more of a guardian than a sensei, she cared for Akane. Lord Danzo disapproved of how Yuka-sama treated her, he took over her education for a few months. Until, one day he asked her to use chains, to which she had no idea what he was talking about. He explained the technique to her, but to no prevail she unable to use the technique. This was one of many times he tried to make her use it, but never did.

Danzo eventually gave up and left her which made her feel useless, but Yuka continued to make her study despite Danzo labeling her useless, since then she felt like a failure, even though Yuka told her she was not. Danzo would blame Yuka for making her weak with emotions. Eventually Yuka died, Danzo claimed she was weak, she allowed her emotions to take over her which clouded her judgement which lead to her death. Once again she was left alone. Akane made it her priority to prove Danzo wrong, she was not useless and she would become a skilled kunoichi. Now confident about graduating she knew she has to surpass her teammates once she was on a genin team no matter what.

* * *

Akane tightened her new navy blue ninja headband as she made her way out of the academy, she looked over to see Naruto over by a tree on a single swing on a branch. She walked over to him.

"Naruto?" she asked. Naruto looks up and smiles

" Oh, hey Akane". She looks at him and sees that he does not a headband

"You didn't pass the exam", He looks at her and smiles again

"yeah, but don't worry I was only a few points behind, so Mizuki-sensei said if I prove myself, he will pass me to genin" he says in a calm tone which was unusual of him." I have to get going I have to go to Mizuki- sensei and next time you will see me I will also have a ninja headband as well" Naruto takes off towards the academy again.

Akane makes her way home and prepare her things, because tomorrow she will meet her new sensei, she wonder who they might be. Akane finished, she then ate dinner and headed to her bathroom when she looked out the window to see many ninjas were running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. She ran to her balcony and saw a familiar chunin, she walked closer to see it was her sensei Iruka.

"What's going on Iruka-sensei"

he turns around to see who it was " oh, Akane i-its -" he was cut off by an other shinobi who appeared

" Have you found Naruto yet? Iruka?".

Iruka shakes his head "No. Not yet" the other shinobi nodded and took off.

"What happened? Did Naruto do something? Is he in trouble?" she asked wondering what would Naruto have done to make the Hokage send out shinobi to search for him.

"He-" Iruka stared at the red head wondering if he should even involve a newbie genin, but then he realises she only spoke to Naruto and appeared to have helped him when no one did. She also a clanmate of his and trusts her even with her sudden appearance at the academy.

"Naruto has stolen the forbidden scroll. Do you know anything about this?"

Her eyes widen "No, but I know that after graduation Naruto headed towards the academy to meet up with Mizuki to 'prove himself worthy' to become a shinobi" she answers.

Iruka looked at her with a shocked. ' _Impossible, Mizuki could not have made Naruto do this_ '. Iruka took a deep breath.

"Akane, go to the hokage and report this to him. I'm going to search for Naruto. Go now!" Iruka flickers off.

"Head to the northern part of the forest and you will find him"

"H-how?"

"Go now!" Akane commanded "Trust me"

Iruka took off and Akane rushes over to the Hokage tower. She finds the hokage sitting in front of a crystal ball. She began to explain what might have happened with Mizuki making Naruto steal the forbidden scroll in order to graduate.

* * *

Akane stayed at the Hokage tower until the sun began to rise. Lord Hokage called off the search. Naruto,who was wearing a ninja headband that seemed to have belonged to iruka, came back with Iruka who was holding the scroll and Mizuki tied up by the ANBU.

" So, yeah once I found the scroll I knew something was wrong, and that's when it occurred to me that Mizuki was using me. I knew I had to protect the scroll no matter what" Naruto explained with a serious tone and expression which seemed alien to them.

"I see. Well I'm glad you have taken matters into your own hands Naruto, you have proven yourself as a true shinobi, and I approve of you as a genin of the hidden leaf" The hokage takes a puff of his pipe and smiles at Naruto who's serious expression turns to a bright smile.

" However because of this incident. I will push your meeting with your senseis the day after you three and the rest of the shinobi can rest." The Hokage blew his pipes smoke out through his nostrils " Naruto and Akane, I want you to be prepared to meet your sensei."

Akane and Naruto nodded

"You are dismissed"

Akane made sure Naruto and Iruka went to the hospital to receive medical attention. Iruka only had the large wound on his back along small scratches which granted him a week of medical leave. While Naruto had minor scratches which healed later on the day. When Naruto was cleared, both Akane and Naruto headed their separate ways home.


	5. Chapter 5- The New Teams

The sun shined bright across the hidden leaf village. The morning was was warm and noisy as usual, Akane woke up later than usual, since she was no longer is an academy student and now she is an official genin of the hidden leaf.

Today, the student who graduated will be placed into teams and meet their jonin sensei. Akane didn't care who she will be placed with as long as her teammates didn't get in the way of any missions and most of all be useless, as in having teammates who only watched the other train and work hard while they sit and watch and do nothing.

Akane looked at the time, it was 9 and she had to be at the academy at 11 without wasting time she ate, got dressed in her usual outfit and she put on her ninja head band. Once she was done she walked to the academy as she did many times before.

The bell rang the same as the children ran to class, saying goodbye to their parents. In Iruka's class, the classroom was not as full with students since not everyone graduated and it was early. Akane looked around to find a place to sit. She found Naruto sitting in the middle row and waving with a smile across his face. He waved at her to sit by him and so she did. As she sat down, Shikamaru walked down the aisle and looked at Naruto with confusion across his face

"Naruto what are you doing with a ninja head band" he asked pointing at Naruto head.

"Well isn't it obvious I graduated as well" Naruto said with a smirk on his face while he held his head band with his thumb and index finger. He turned to look at Akane "Right Akane" he asked her. Akane looked both boys and nodded not really wanting to have a conversation with them. The boys talked and Shikamaru later walked over to an empty seat with a boy eating chips named Choji. The class was settling down until Ino and Sakura ran into the classroom to find Sasuke, who was sitting at the last row by the windows. The girls walk up to him and more fangirls join in with them.

Naruto who is irritated with Sasuke's attention, jumps onto Sasuke's desk. "what's so great about at him, look at his hair it looks like a duck's butt" he says confusingly pointing at Sasuke's hair with slight disgust. Now Sasuke now is even more irritated if that's possible glares up at Naruto

"whatever dead last" he said with irritation. The girls yell at Naruto and the boy who sitting in front of Sasuke, elbowed Naruto on his back and Naruto losses balance, he squats down and places his hands on his lap to regain balance, but is too late. For Naruto's soft warm lips meets Sasuke's cool pouted lips, both boys look at each other with surprise and blush. Within seconds the boys separate and gag, the girls scream and yell at Naruto for what they had witness. Akane witness the kiss and sighed shaking her head.

Finally Iruka came to class and was surprised to find the class sitting down and quiet, he was not going complain.

Iruka explained to the class the team system and began to call the teams out. "Alright, Team 7 is Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto looked up finally paying attention as Iruka called the next name "Haruno Sakura" Naruto smiled, he was happy his crush was on his team. Sakura on the other hand was dreading the fact of Naruto being on her team, but she also wanted to know who the last member would be. Iruka looked at them with annoyance and continued "Uchiha Sasuke" Naruto and Sakura Looked up at surprised, Naruto being aggravated and Sakura jumped in the air with joy. Until Iruka called another name "And Uzumaki Akane" the newly team 7 looked up with surprise of their being a fourth member to the team. Iruka continued to call the teams. Team eight was Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame. Team 10 was Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi.

Iruka dismissed the class to lunch and told them to come back to meet their new sensei.


	6. Chapter 6- Pass or Fail:The Bell Test

"Now then" kakashi begins to speak pulling three bells from his pocket "I have three bells and it is your goal to grab one"

"But sensei you have three bells" Sakura exclaimed

"Yes that is because only three genin can be part of a team, so you have to take these bells from me with the intent to kill me and I will set the clock to twelve. Also, If you fail to grab one by the time the alarm rings you will fail and will not eat lunch, but if three of you get a bell then I will give you lunch and the person who fails will be tied to a stump while we eat our lunch in front of them any Iruka dismissed the class to lunch, Akane waited until the classroom was not packed. she stood up and walked down the aisle,Naruto also stood up and ran in front of Akane who was about to open the door.

"Hey! Akane, Sakura we should eat lunch together, since we are on the same team" Naruto said with a boyish grin across his face.

"No way I'm having lunch with you Naruto" Sakura said with her annoying voice with her hands in a fist. She fangirls at Sasuke who stood up and walked to the door and walks out.

"No thank you Naruto, I'm going to eat at home" Akane said with nodded and walked out of the classroom.

After, lunch all the students came back to meet their senseis. The students sat in the rows with their teammates. Soon jonins came through the door, calling their teams. Then only team seven was left. They waited in silence until an hour had passed.

"What the hell is taking them so long" Naruto says with frustration. He walks to the chalkboard, grabs the eraser, placing the eraser between the doorframe and the door, then closed the door to hold the eraser in place.

"Naruto what are you doing?" Sakura asked with annoyance in her voice

"This is what they get for being late" Naruto replied with a giggle

"Don't do that we will get in trouble" Sakura replies

"they're a jonin how will they fall for that" Sasuke spoke glaring down

"Yeah, Sasuke right no way they will fall for that" Sakura says with her clapping her hands together blushing at Sasuke

Akane blinks with boredom not wanting to be part of Naruto's childish prank. Soon after, the door opens and the eraser falls onto a silver haired man with a mask covering his half his face and his ninja headband tilted sideways, covering his left eye.

Naruto bursts out laughing and Sakura pretends to be innocent.

"My first impression of you guys…. I hate you. Meet me up on the roof in five minutes" he says and a poofs out of sight.

* * *

Five minutes later they all meet on the roof and sit on the wide stairs.

"How about we introduce ourselves" The silver haired man says crossing his arm while leaning on the rail behind him

"How do we do that?" Sakura asks

"Well, you know your dreams, hobbies, things you like, and dislike" he replies

"How about you go first, so we can have an example" Naruto asks

"Alright, My name is Kakashi Hatake, and for what I like and dislike well I don't feel like telling you and my dreams I haven't really thought of it .As for my hobbies I have a lot of hobbies." Kakashi answered casually

' He told us nothing, but his name!' Sakura and Naruto both think

"How about you go first" He gesturing at Naruto

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen more specific ichiraku ramen and when Iruka pays for me. I dislike waiting for three minutes for my ramen to be cooked, my hobbies are trying different ramen and comparing them along with training, watering plants and pranking. My future dream is to become the greatest Hokage so everyone in the village will have to acknowledge me and treat me with respect! Believe it! Naruto finishes energetically

' Very energetic like someone I know'. Kakashi thinks of an old memory and mentally smiles . He looks at the redhead next to Naruto. 'I wonder if that could be said of her as well ' he wonders. "How about you next red" gesturing at Akane

"My name is Akane Uzumaki, I like many things and I dislike hypocrites, lazy, arrogant, and anyone useless. My hobbies include reading, training, and learning fuinjutsu. My dreams are to prove my strength and usefulness to someone important" she answers

' Well she is nothing like them, I wonder if he had anything to do with this' Kakashi mentally takes note. He turns to sakura "your turn pink"

Sakura pouts but turns into a smile "My name is Sakura Haruno, what I like...uh I mean". She looks at Sasuke a blushes. "Uh, my hobbies is.. Uh …" She giggles and blushes. "My dreams for the future..." Sakura said blushing and looking at Sasuke with her crazy fangirl eyes.

"Do you dislike anything" Kakashi asks

"Naruto and Ino-pig!" Sakura shouts, while Naruto looked down feeling hurt

' _Well, most girls her age to tend to like boys more than training hopely Akane will help her that_ ' Kakashi thinks

' _She is definitely going to be the first person to die in this squad_ ' Akane mentally remarks

" And lastly you" Kakashi gestures at Sasuke

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I hate a lot of things and I don't like particularly like anything. I don't have a dream, but a reality I'm going to restore my clan and kill a certain someone, and to protect someone one dear to me" Sasuke said with a dark tone to his voice that made Sakura and Naruto shiver.

' _I hope that someone isn't me_ ' Naruto thinks fearing for his life

' _To protect someone dear to him_ ' Sakura the words repeat in her mind and feels defeated,but quickly changes to determination ' _No I will fight for Sasuke's Love no matter what_ '

' _So, he is committed after all this time as I though_ ' Akane looks up at Kakashi who was also seemed to expected it already

' _As I expected. I have quite a lot of work ahead of me, why did I agree to do this. lord Hokage you knew this didn't you._ ' Kakashi tries to not sigh out loud. "Ok then, tomorrow we will have our first mission"

"What type of mission" Naruto says with as he salutes

"A survival mission" Kakashi says

"What do you mean a survival mission?" Sakura asks frowning at what might be a cruel joke

"I will explain it to you tomorrow, and we will meet at designated training ground at five am and bring your ninja gear"Kakashi says and explains the survival mission along with what would happen if they would fail

Naruto grunts while Sakura still determined to not lose. Sasuke's hands tremble and Akane takes a deep breath; they are not prepared for this.

"Oh, yeah I forgot to tell you, don't eat or you will puke" Kakashi says, as he waves them at them

* * *

The next morning Akane grabs her ninja equipment and eats a light breakfast then makes her way to the training ground, she arrived at the same time as rest of her team. The group waits for their jonin sensei to arrive. it is until eight when Kakashi finally arrives at the training ground

"You're late!" Sakura and Naruto both point and yell in usion at Kakashi

"Well you see I came across a black cat and I had to take the long way around" Kakashi casually says

' Out of the excuses he could have chosen, he chose that' Akane sighs

questions" Kakashi looks at the genins who have blankly stare at him "good when I say begin you will begin"

The genins move into fighting position while a gust of wind blows in the silence

"Begin" Kakashi yells and jumps to the center of the field taking out a book from his back pouch while Akane, Sakura, and Sasuke jump to hid behind the bushes and Naruto stands in front of Kakashi.

' _What is Naruto thinking he's such an idiot and why is Kakashi reading this is a test_ ' Sakura wonders. She looks over to see Akane and Sasuke carefully watching Naruto

"Alright then get ready Kakashi!" Naruto yells as he charges at Kakashi. He hook punches and roundhouse kicks Kakashi who blocked each strike with ease and without looking up from his book. Naruto then summons shadow clones, the army of Narutos run attacking Kakashi, but he manages to dodge and defeat each clone. Each clone pop and clouds of smoke cover the field. Three clones then jump on to Kakashi and the real Naruto jumps out of the smoke to punch Kakashi, but Kakashi doges Naruto and defeats the clones in one swift move. Naruto hops a couple of time forward to regain his balance, but Kakashi closed his book between his thumbs and makes a tiger seal.

" _What jutsu could this be_ " Akane, Sasuke , and Sakura said still watching cautiously

"What" Naruto says as he slowly turns his head to see Kakashi behind him making the tiger seal, he tries to move but was too late

"One Thousand Years of Death!" Kakashi thrusting the tiger seal at Naruto's bottom

Naruto was sent flying in the area and fell into the river nearby. Naruto climbs out of the river and throws a smoke bomb on the floor and escapes. Naruto hides in the bushes with the rest of his teammates.

When Naruto had thrown the smoke bomb Sasuke makes his move. While Kakashi makes his way back to the center of the field Sasuke attacks him, but just like Naruto's fight with him, kakashi dodge each attack. Eventually Sasuke throws wired shurikens at Kakashi, he successfully ties Kakashi down.

"Fire style: great fireball jutsu" he called out and a fire ball set the wire on fire.

Once he finished the jutsu, there was no trace of Kakashi left. He walks towards the ashes, but a hand grabs onto his ankle and pulls him down into the ground with only his head sticking out of the ground.

While Sasuke was fighting Kakashi, she made her way to another clearing of the training ground but she ran into Sasuke. Confused with seeing him she notices he is injured she tries to protect him, but she was caught in a genjutsu.

Akane was moving to an area nearby, when she saw Sakura get caught in the genjutsu. Akane found Kakashi, she threw a kunai at him with full force. He caught it, but then he realized there was a hidden paper bomb attached to it. A loud 'boom' roared through the training ground Akane waited until the smoke cleared through. She waited until she fell onto the ground, her ankles had been tied down together with wire. She rolled over and was caught in more wires. She continued to rolling over trying to undo the wire. She closes her eyes and concentrating. She blinked and wondered how she would untie herself.

Naruto found Akane and released her from the wires. Naruto being stubborn as he is left her again. Akane dashed back to where she had last seen Sakura, she released the genjutsu.

"Go find Sasuke and I will find will meet back here understood" Akane commands Sakura who would argue but nods and leaves to finds Sasuke.

Akane maneuvers her way through the trees and finds an orange figure hanging from their ankle. "I'll get you down Naruto" she cuts the rope and Naruto falls on his back on to the ground hard.

"Thanks Akane" He salutes her dizzily.

"Follow me, we're meeting with Sakura and Sasuke" she points to the direct she had came from

"What! No, way I'm not going where Sasuke is going!" He yells crossing his arms making an x.

"Hey, be quiet. Fine don't come if you want to fail" she gets up and starts walking away

"Wait Akane, don't leave" he shouts as he follows her

* * *

All four genin meet back together.

"So, what are we going to do" Sakura asks

Naruto chuckles "Ha, it's not like we are here to work together right" Naruto says jokingly

Sasuke and Akane frown at the same time, both knowing they will have to.

"We have too" Akane said.

"Wait what?" Naruto said taken back by surprise.

"She's right, we have to call a truce even though I don't want to" Sasuke replies. The other three genin nod with approval

"So what's the plan, there are only three bells and four of us" Sakura pointed out

"Yes, but he did not say that the bells had to be in one piece" Akane replied

"Hm… someone should distract him and then we attack full force and ... we should get rid of his book" Naruto smirks " I have a plan". Akane and the other two look at Naruto confused but listen to his plan and add suggestions. Once they finished they all scattered

* * *

The memorial stone stood there sparkling in the sunlight. There was three bentos in front of the stone. Naruto casually walks to the memorial stone and sits in front, picking up a bento. "Oh looks like lunch is all for me" He says, grabbing the chopsticks in his hand.

"Is that so?" Kakashi appears behind him. Naruto turn around and kicks the book out of Kakashi's hands and flies to the post with clock on top. Kakashi in shock runs after his book, but is attacked by Akane and Sasuke.

While they both fight with Kakashi, Sakura grabs the book and gives it to Naruto.

Akane and Sasuke jump back. Kakashi turns to Naruto who sat at the bottom of the post flipping through the pages and starts to read out loud. Kakashi freezes in embarrassment and runs to Naruto, who starts to rip off a page. To which Kakashi crys at him to stop.

Kakashi opens his eyes to see four genin standing in front of him. Sakura and Sasuke had each their own bell while Akane and Naruto each had half of a bell.

"You never said anything about having half of a bell, so this counts. We all pass" Naruto says with a grin across his face " Oh, yeah I didn't rip any pages out. This a random sheet of paper" he gives Kakashi the book.

"You are all something else." Kakashi chuckles "Well then I guess you all pass" Kakashi gives them a thumbs up and smiles "I'll go inform the hokage, but before that there is something else I want to do before I go" he gestures the genin to follow him to the memorial stone.

"Those who break the rules are scum, but those who leave their comrade behind are worse than scum. These words were from a friend of mine who after telling me those words died. I tested you guys to see if you would use teamwork, which you did and that is why you passed." The genin stood in silence letting the words sink in their minds.

" You are dismissed, go home and rest" Kakashi waves at the genin who walk their way home.

"Akane" he said with a serious tone to his voice

"Yes Kakashi" Akane turns around to meet his eyes

"Are you working with Danzo and if so I will remove you from my team" he glares at her speaking with a threatening tone

"I haven't spoken to Danzo in years, and Lord Hokage requested me to enter the academy to join a genin team. If have a problem with that then address it with Lord third and if there is anything else you have to say tell me or I will take my leave" Akane replied

"No, you may leave" he says turning back to the memorial stone.


	7. Chapter 7- A Mission to the Land of Wave

After becoming official genins, team seven did not expect to do the work of a D-rank missions. Of course they knew that they will not jump into epic battles and fighting powerful ninjas, but after chasing Tora,the cat belonging to the daimyo's wife, was the last Tora and heading back to return her, she was vigorously clawing Naruto's face.

"Tora!" Madam Shijimi cried, ripping the cat out of Naruto arms and hugging the cat to death. Tora in her arm was devastated, tried to escape. Madam Shijimi then pays a large sum of money to the Hokage and leaves the room.

"No wonder the cat kept escaping" Sakura commented feeling sorry for capturing her.

"Heh, that what the stupid cat deserves" Naruto said still angry with cat.

"The mission was a success and was pay for. Well then, Kohana can you give me the updated list of missions and Iruka could you take the money and store it" the Hokage said as he shuffles papers around and nodded Iruka leaving the room.

"Hey Kohana! I haven't seen you in a long time" Naruto happily shouts at a dark eyed teenaged girl with shoulder length brown hair, wearing a bandana forehead protector, and a standard leaf shinobi outfit. She walks to the Hokage's table

"Same goes for you Naruto" she smiles at Naruto as she hands the Hokage a couple scroll labeled with D and C. "I can't believe you actually became a genin, looks like I lost my bet" she shrugs.

"You what!" Naruto shouts with anger "You didn't believe I actually became a genin"

"Naruto stop shouting " Sakura said pinching Naruto's cheek, he had no choice but to calm down "who is she anyway" she asked

"She's the Hokage's granddaughter and a trainee for hokage guard platoon, meaning she is also a skilled kunoichi" Kakashi answered

"Wow really" Sakura looks over amazed at Kohana who was smiling proudly.

The hokages clears his throat " let's see there is a babysitting job and weed picking for-" He was cut off by madam Shijimi screaming

"Tora ran off again!" Madam shijimi voice is heard through the door

Lord Hokage sighs "Or you can catch-"

"No way!" Naruto shouted catching the whole room's attention, he makes an x with his arms "I'm not going to do any losey housework. Why can't we just get a real mission!" he continues

"Naruto!" the Hokage calls his name and proceeds to explain the missions ranking system to him and and his teammates, but then realizes team seven is not paying attention to him and are listening to Naruto's story about ramen. He sighs and looks up to his granddaughter.

"You might want to give him a C-ranked mission now, since you don't want him to take you out. Now do you?" she said smirking at her grandfather

Lord third's face turned bright red with embarrassment knowing what she meant. catching the genins and Kakashi's attention

"Kakashi do you think they are ready for a C-ranked mission" the Hokage asks Kakashi letting his face return to normal

"Yes, I do think they are ready" Kakashi answered, getting Naruto's attention and stands up straight

"Allright, Tazuna you may come in" he announces as the door opens

"These are my escorts" a brown haired middle aged man said as he came through the door taking a sip of his sake bottle" they are nothing but a bunch of brats"

"Tazuna these are the escorts that you requested. You did pay for a C-ranked mission, right?" Kohana asked making Tazuna huff with anger

"Of course" Tazuna huffed again

"Team seven this is Tazuna a bridge builder from the Land of Waves, he has requested you to escort him back home. You will leave tomorrow" Lord third said

"Alright, team seven we will meet at the gates at seven in the morning and remember to pack for a two week trip, understood." Kakashi said

"Yes, sensei" the genins answered

"Very well then you are all dismissed and good luck on your mission" lord third said nodding at the genin

The next morning the village was still coming alive. The villagers are up and about opening their shops, the gates had been opened an hour prior. Team seven had arrived at the same time with Tazuna, Soon after Kakashi arrived.

"Wow! look at that Kakashi sensei made it on time" Naruto loudly pointed out

"I always come on time for missions" Kakashi said in his usual laid back voice

The group left the leaf and walked down the main road, look back at the village gates slowly vanishing behind them. They continue their long long walk and the mission was going peaceful until they came across a lone road. Kakashi noticed a small puddle of water and did not react wanting to see his his genins had noticed. Akane was the only genin who noticed the puddle she looks at her teammates who were looking around aimlessly.

'These idiots haven't noticed the puddle, do they not know it has not rained in weeks. Even if it's a puddle they should be aware of their surrounding what if a ninja from another village attacked us-" Akane's thoughts were cut of when two figures with chains wrapped around Kakashi-sensei and ripped him apart 'Damn I shouldn't have distracted myself' Akane reached for a Kunai and threw two of them at a chains links, logging the enemy to a tree. She was not the only one who reacted but also Sasuke, he threw a shuriken and a kunai logging the other to the tree and he moved quickly to the two ninjas and kicked both them in the face. Meanwhile Sakura and Naruto stood in shock of what had happened to Kakashi and were surprise with Akane's and Sasuke's actions. Sasuke jumped back next to where Akane was standing, while Sasuke was catching his breath, Akane moved towards the two ninja cautiously with kunai in each hand, she was going for the kill, but both ninjas got lose and charged for Tazuna and the other for Naruto. Akane moved out of the way on time and moved swiftly to block the ninja charging towards Naruto, while the one charging to Tazuna, Sakura moved in front of Tazuna to protect him, but Sasuke also moved in front of both Tazuna and Sakura ready to block the attack. When Akane thought she was late, Both ninjas were stopped by Kakashi. The genin and Tazuna were all shocked with his sudden appearance.

"Hi" The genin looked at Kakashi who casually held the two ninjas in both arms. "Naruto sorry I didn't help you right away, I didn't mean for you to get hurt, I did think you would freeze up like that" he said as he walked toward Tazuna "Good job Sasuke and Akane you both were very quick to react and you too Sakura"

'I was useless and Sasuke was cool like he has done done this a thousand times and Akane had to protect me… Damn weren't they scared at all' Naruto felt embarrassed that had began to rise he felt like a coward

"Hey" Sasuke called out.

Naruto looked up with surprise "Huh"

"You are not hurt are you scaredy cat" Sasuke smirked at Naruto who felt the even more embarrassed than before but it turned to anger

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled

"Naruto! Stand still these ninja had poison in their claws we need to take it out of you quickly" Naruto quickly began to panic "We have to open the wound and drain the poison out of your blood, so don't move around that will spread the poison. By the way " Tazuna looked at Kakashi with hesitation "We need to talk" Kakashi tied the ninja to a tree "They are chunin from the Village Hidden in the Mist their specialty is relentless attack, they keep fighting no matter what the sacrifice"

"How did you know about our ambush?" one of the mist ninja asked

"Akane and I seemed to be the only ones who noticed it. A puddle of wate on a clear day like today, and when it has not rained in weeks"

"If that was the case then you did you leave it to the genin to do the fighting" Tazuna asked

"I could have taken them out quickly, but then I would have learned nothing I had to know who their target was and what they were after" Kakashi looked at Tazuna out the corner of his eye

"Huh, What are getting at" Tazuna said nervously while Kakashi began to dig out answers from Tazuna who apparently did not have enough money to request a B-Ranked or higher mission and lied.

"We are genin this mission is too advanced for our ninja training" Sakura said sympathetically "We should go back I think we should treat Naruto's wounds and get the poison out as soon as possible" Kakashi looked at Sakura and then glanced at Naruto who looked at his hand

"Naruto's hand could be a burden to the mission. I guess we should head back to the village" Kakashi said. Naruto felt anger arise from him and and pulled a kunai out and stabbed the kunai into the back of his hand where the wound was Sasuke,Sakura and Tazuna gasped in shock watching the blood spill from his hand

"Why am I so different… I" Naruto grunted in pain

"Naruto stop that what are you doing" Sakura yelled at Naruto

"I trained so hard by myself to become a ninja and to one day achieve my dream from now on I will never back down again and let someone like Akane rescue me like I'm some coward and I will not lose to Sasuke. Upon wound I swear this pledge Believe it. Oh, and bridge builder I will complete this mission and protect you with this kunai" Naruto finished with a grin and sweating from the pain. "Don't worry I'll be fine"

"Naruto, uh that was really cool how you took out the kunai to get the poison out and all, but if you lose anymore blood you are going to die" there was silence among the group and Naruto began to sweat more and his face began to turn blue. "It would be a good idea to stop the bleeding now seriously" Kakashi said smiling behind his mask which that made Naruto start to panic and start blabbering about how he is still too young to die. "Show me your hand" Kakashi paid close attention Naruto's hand and saw the wound had started to heal 'So this is the power of the Nine tailed fox' . Kakashi garabed a clean bandage and started to wrap the wound "You are going to be fine"

'Of course he will be fine, he is an Uzumaki which grants him healing abilities' Akane though and wondered if Kakashi knew this as well

The team continued their mission again and made their way onto a boat crossing the water to the Land of Waves. The way to the shore was long but felt even longer because of the heavy Fog that surrounded them. As there was silence a dark figure appeared and as they got closer the figure turned out to be the half made bridge still being under construction.

"Wow it huge!" Naruto shouted as he looked up onto the bridge

"Hey I told you to be quiet, Why do you think we have to row over here and through the fog. We don't want to be seen" The rower said trying to hid his anger while Naruto covered his mouth with both of his hand not trying to make anymore noise

" before we reach the pier I have some question you have to answer" Kakashi said quietly. Tazuna looked down knowing he had to tell him the truth "The men who are after you I need to know why. If you don't tell us I'm afraid we will have to end this mission when we drop you on the shore"

" I have no choice but to tell you the truth. Now I want you to tell you the truth" Tazuna had began to explain how the Land of Waves was poor and the one behind the attempts on his life was a businessman named Gato who sells drugs and contraband and takes over business using missing nins. Gato took over the Land of Waves transport and shipping a year prior and fears the bridge will make him lose control of the Land of Waves. The land of Waves economy will improve with the bridge and is the last hope the people will have. Kakashi agreed to continue the mission. Once the were getting closer to the shore the fog began to clear, they went under the bridge and on the other side the sky was clear and bright blue, the houses were simple and small built on top of the water. The team got off the boat and headed to Tazuna's home. They walked into a forest and Naruto threw his kunai into the bush 'claiming' they were being followed. Kakashi investigated and found a snow rabbit scared half to death. Naruto ran and hugged the rabbit apologizing for attacking it.

"Look out!" Kakashi yelled a a massive blade spun out from a tree and headed toward Tazuna but Tazuna along the rest ducked the blade. The blade logged into a tree and a ninja stepped onto the blade and glanced back at the team.

"Well if it isn't Zabuza Momochi a rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist" Kakashi announced. Naruto began to charge towards the ninja but was stopped by Kakashi. "You'll get in the way. If I have to fight that means I'll need this" Kakashi began move head tilted headband and wore it like on his forehead as he opened his eye to reveal the sharingan.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan eye, did I get that right?" Zabuza asked

'How does he have the sharingan only an Uchiha can have the Sharingan did he- no I can't distracted not now. I'll have to ask him later' Sasuke looked surprised to find his sensei with his clan's kekkei genkai

'So it's true he possesses the Sharingan then that must mean the other rumor about him coping ninjutsu must true as well?' Akane thought

"Get in diamond formation! protect Tazuna and stay out of this fight I taught you teamwork now use it" Kakashi commanded "I'm ready"

The area surrounding area began to be covered by thick Mist. Zabuza grabbed his blade and stood on the water gathering large amount of chakra and mist began to become thicker and thicker and all of a sudden Zabuza appeared behind Sakura and Sasuke. The genin jumped as the he swung his blade. Naruto grabbed Tazuna and jumped few feet behind Zabuza. Kakashi had stopped the blade and had stabbed him in the gut with a kunai, but instead of blood pouring out it was water.

"A water clone" Akane said quietly and noticed Zabuza behind Kakashi. The clone turned into a puddle of water and Kakashi and Zabuza clashed again and continued until Zabuza ran onto the water gathering more chakra, Kakashi still on land also gathered chakra. Zabuza began to make hand signs and as he made them he noticed Kakashi also copying the same signs and both created a water dragon which both dragon crashed into each other canceling each other out. They began to clash again but Kakashi let his guard down for a split second and was caught in a water prison jutsu. Naruto ran from formation and created a hundred clones. Zabuza created another water clone and defeated the clones and sent Naruto flying toward the other direction of his team. He threw Sasuke a fuma shuriken and it took Sasuke a second to realize Naruto's plan, Sasuke threw the shuriken at Zabuza who moved to the side, but then the Shuriken made a 'poofed' to reveal Naruto who transformed himself in the shuriken and threw a kunai at Zabuza. Zabuza dismissed the water prison and Kakashi was free at last and with no time to waste he attacked Zabuza sending him to the tree Kakashi had his chance to end Zabuza, a senbon was thrown into Zabuza's throat ending him. The attacker was revealed to be a Mist ANBU who picked up Zabuza's body and thanked the team and disappeared.

"That ANBU they-" Akane was cut off by Kakashi who fainted and the genin took him to Tazuna's house. The next morning Kakashi woke up and began to discuss what had happened yesterday.

"Akane explain to the others what the ANBU did" Kakashi said

"What do you mean! we saw what she did to Zabuza!" Naruto yelled

"Let Akane explain"

"Well this ANBU was from the Hidden Mist, who specialize in tracking missing a ninja's body holds many secrets, it's their job for the tracker to kill the missing nin and also they have to study the body right there on the spot and destroy it. Which was the opposite of what this tracker did"

"Yeah, but the tracker killed Zabuza" Sakura said

"Yes, but remember they have to study the body meaning that they are educated on the human body, and the weapon she used was a senbon which is used in acupuncture and hitting the right point will put someone in a temporary state of death meaning that this tracker was not there to kill Zabuza"

"S-so y-you m-mean" Naruto stuttered

"Yes, Zabuza is still alive" Kakashi finished the sentence and a sudden chill was in the atmosphere.

* * *

Authors Note:

Hope you enjoy this and sorry I was going to up load this but the Cubs won the world series! (yes I'm a Cub's fan) and since this was special, I combined the next chapter to this one so it's much longer that usual (Yay^.^).I forgot to mention I might not upload as often because I have an addiction to playing Battlefield 1 and Skyrim the special edition and it will get worst with the release of Dishonored 2 (yeah I have a problem).

Also, I created the character Kohana for hokage guard platoon along with some few more characters who will be revealed soon. Kohana means little flower


	8. Chapter 8- Battle on the Bridge

Chapter Summary:

Will Team seven be ready to face off Zabuza and the mysterious tracker ninja?

* * *

"No, It can't be. You must be overthinking" Tazuna said in disbelief

"In countering suspicion the ninja prepares quickly, hesitation leads to disaster. Every shinobi knows this saying" Kakashi said eyeing Naruto who was trembling. ' _Looks like he's pleased with Zabuza still being alive, so he can have another shot at him'_

"Sensei you said 'prepare quickly', but how can we do that when you can barely move?" Sakura asked

Kakashi chuckled "I can still train you"

"Hold on! a little last minute training won't make us strong enough to fight Zabuza, You could barely defeated even with your sharingan! we have to be reasonable about this"

"Sakura, why do you think I was able to stop Zabuza because you all helped me, you've grown." Kakashi replied "Naruto, you've grown the most" he smiled at Naruto

Naruto smiled back at Kakashi "So you noticed things are gonna get better believe it"

"I don't believe it and nothing is gonna be good" an unknown voice of a child spoke catching the attention of the room. The voice was from a small boy around eight years old with dark hair and eyes, wearing green overalls, yellow shirt underneath and a blue fishing hat

"Who are you!?" Naruto shouted pointing his finger at the boy

"Inari! Where have you been?" Tazuna spread his arms out

"Grandpa, welcome back" Inari ran into Tazuna's arms hugging him back

"Inari! that was very rude. These ninja helped your grandpa and brought him here safely" Tazuna's daughter scolded him

Tazuna patted Inari's head "It's okay I'm rude to them too"

"Mom, don't you see these people are going to die! Gato and his men will come back and find them and wipe them out" Inari said

"What did you say brat! I'm a ninja who came here to protect your grandfather and defeat this Gato or whatever his name is and like a hero" Naruto said proudly pointing his thumb to his chest

Inari looked down "There's no such things as 're just full of stupid ideas"

"What did you say!" Naruto stomped forward but Akane held him back

"If you want to stay alive you should come back where you came from" Inari said and walked out of the room

"Sorry about" Tazuna apologized

XXX

Naruto walked up the stairs of the house to teach Inari a lesson. As he walked down the hall he heard the crying, Naruto slowly walked to the slightly opened door to see Inari crying in front of an open window with a beautiful view of the ocean. Naruto noticed Inari crying about someone who seemed to have died. Naruto walked outside to meet with Kakashi to train.

XXX

"Alright training starts now" Kakashi said leaning on a crutch on his right side"Since we know that we chakra is, now we will practice on how to use it"

"Kakashi-sensei we already know how to use chakra we use it to create jutsu" Naruto pointed out

"I agree with him for once" Sasuke said

"No, you only scratched the surface, you to used it but you're not using it efficiently. As a ninja you must learn how to control it as if it was second nature to you, this is useful for battle since you want the right amount of portion for a jutsu since you don't want to waste it and well you know the rest and that's what we are going to be training on right now and let me tell you it won't be easy" Kakashi said

"What will we have to do?" Sakura asked

Kakashi chuckle "Climbing a tree".

"Climbing a tree?"

Kakashi explain the tree climbing exercise and proceed to climb the tree with his feet and slowly made it to a branch and hung upside down and threw four kunai in front of each genin gazed up at the trees in front of them, scaling them and began to gather they thought they had enough chakra they grabbed the kunai in front of each of them and charged forward and onto the tree. Naruto took two step onto the tree and fell head first, Sasuke and Akane went up one third of the way and jumped down to the ground. Sakura reached higher than the others and sat on top of a branch.

' _As I thought. Sakura has the best chakra control than the rest, but she also has the least amount of chakra. Akane. you all possess a large reserve of chakra much greater than my have to learn how to control it and especially you Naruto.'_ Kakashi leaned against the tree he was on

XXX

It was already noon, Naruto and Sasuke counting to struggling running up the tree, Sakura was more advanced than the rest, but she was already exhausted. Akane was testing the chakra on her feet on the trunk and soon found the perfect balance and slowly walked up the tree still wobbling every few steps.

Sakura laid next to the roots of the tree and glanced at her teammates who still were trying to advance.

' _I'm worn_ out _how can they keep going'_ she though and saw Naruto's advanced marks ' _ha, Naruto isn't making any progress at all knowing him he will give up and throw a tantrum'_ Naruto stood up and looked at his marks and began to grunt ' _there he goes, he's so predictable it's embarrassing'_ To her surprise Naruto walk to her and asked for advice on how to control his chakra.

XXX

Later that day Akane and Sakura were assigned to guard Tazuna and the rest of the builders, Since Akane advanced quickly Kakashi sent her with Sakura to the bridge. Sakura sat on the side and yawned every few minuets bored, while Akane made rounds walking up and down the bridge. As the sun set Akane, Sakura, and Tazuna went to shop for food to eat for group walked down the road filled with people on the streets begging for money or for food. They arrived at the shop which was bare. A man tried to steal from Sakura, but she mistook him for toughing her and punched him throwing him out of the shop and it happened again, but with a child who begged for food. Sakura stopped herself and was surprise to Akane giving the child a few pieces of candy she had. Sakura was more surprised to see her eyes soften up to the child for she always had a serious and cold stare. Tazuna explained what the people of the Land of Waves suffer due to Gato, Akane agreed to help protect Tazuna to finish the bridge. Sakura was a few steps behind the two and wondered why had she never seen this side of Akane. Once they were inside Tazuna's home Akane and Sakura helped Tsunami prepare the food. Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi entered through the door and all of them sat down to eat dinner. Naruto and Sasuke devoured their food and puked it out. Tsunami later served them tea after dinner. Akane helped Tsunami clean up while Sakura got up and studied the photo that had been ripped from the top left corner where someone stood. Sakura asked who was ripped from the photo, Inari stood up and walked out of the kitchen with his mother following behind trying to stop him. Tazuna then told them about Kaiza, a hero who stood up to Gato, but ended up killed by Gato. This event was the cause of which Inari change and act the way he does. Naruto stood up but fell onto the ground, he stood up once again and went out to practice more.

XXX

The next morning, Tsunami had served breakfast everyone except for Naruto was not there and still in the forest. Sasuke walked out and went for a walk while the rest finished their breakfast. One the rest of the team finished they searched for Naruto and had a basket with breakfast for him. They arrived at the training area to find it empty.

"Naruto!" Sakura called out. "He is nowhere to be seen and Sasuke too"

A kunai was thrown, landing on the ground in front of them. They all looked up in shock to find Naruto high up on a branch. He laughs and stood up tall boasting, and then he begins to wobble and he fell backwards

"Naruto!" Sakura screams

"You idiot!" Akane growls gripping the basket's handle in her hands

Naruto swings under the branch hanging upside down and continues to laugh. Akane and Kakashi both stressful sigh

"I'm going to strangle you!" Sakura growls

Naruto laughs and a 'pop' is heard. Naruto screams as he realises he's falling. The rest on the ground tensed up and Sakura screams. Naruto falls down about two feet when he was caught by Sasuke

Sasuke looks down at Naruto dangling "You're such a loser Naruto" Naruto looks up at him and laughs. Sasuke tenses up and looks down at the rest of his team down below

"AW, Sasuke I knew you would save Naruto" Sakura cheered

XXX

Later that evening, Akane helped Tsunami prepare the food while Sakura helped serve it, Sasuke and Naruto came in both helping each other to walk. They walked to the center of the dining area and both fell backwards onto the ground. Once they finished their dinner Tazuna informed them of the bridge being finished in a few days.

"I have been meaning to ask why did you stay to protect me after you found out I lied to you to bring you here?" Tazuna asked Kakashi

Kakashi looked at Tazuna's direction "Those who stray the path of justice have no courage, but under the wing of a strong leader cowardice cannot survive"

"Huh"

"That was a quote from the first Hokage" Kakashi answered

Inari was looking down and then stared at Naruto who was sound asleep and had flashback of his father. Tears began to run down his cheek and a drop splashed onto the table "But Why?"

Naruto woke up "Huh, what did you say?"

Inari slammed his hands on the table as he stood up "All this stupid training is just a waste of time! Gato has an entire army and will beat you down and destroy you. These cools things you say they don't mean anything. No matter what you do! the strong will always will and the weak will always lose"

"Just speak for yourself, it won't be after me you got that"

"Be quiet, just look at you makes me sick. You don't know anything in this country you just are budding in. Always laughing and fooling around, you know nothing about suffering and being treated like dirt"

Naruto glares at Inari "Listen to yourself winning and companing like a sorry little victim" Inari gasps "You can whimper all day for all I care. You are nothing but a coward!"

"Naruto! You went too far" Sakura yells. Naruto growls and walks out of the room. "Naruto?"

XXX

"Ok, I leave Naruto in your hands. He has pushed his body to the limit as usual. So, he might not be able to move at all to day" Kakashi waved at Tasumi.

Once they made it to the bridge they found all of the workers unconscious. Mist began to cover the bridge. Kakashi and the genins got in position and draw their kunai.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting Kakashi" Zabuza's voice heard through the mist "I see you still have brats with you. That one is trembling how pitiful" Sasuke's eyes open wide to see zabuza clones in front of the team. Sasuke looked into Zabuza's eyes "I'm trembling with excitement" he smirked.

"Go on Sasuke" Kakashi gestured. Zabuza's clones sliced in half with ease by Sasuke.

Zabuza and the mist tracker walked forward revealing themselves through the mist "the brat has improved seems you have a rival Haku"

"So, it seems" Haku calmly replied

"So, we were right, this was an act" Akane spoke up. Tazuna and Sakura looked at her with confusion

"So, it seems Akane and by the looks of this it seems they have been at this scam for a while" Kakashi said watching their movement

"I'm taking her out" Sasuke announced

"Impressive, even though the water clone are one tenth the strength of them he still managed to destroy them all" Haku said waiting for Zabuza's command

"Go"

"Right" Haku began to spin towards Sasuke like a tornado. Senbon were thrown from every direction and Sasuke dodged them jumping high in the air he threw a shuriken after Haku as she jumped back giving her distance. Haku catching her breath when Sasuke appeared behind her. Haku spun around drawing a senon clashing with Sasuke's Kunai, she continues to block his attacks but she was kicked back by Sasuke over to Zabuza. Zabuza glares at Sasuke.

"You made a big mistake insulting these ninja by calling them brats that just guarantees to bring out Sasuke's attitude he is the best young fighter of the hidden leaf. Akane and Sakura have the sharpest minds and our most unpredictable, hyperactive, knucklehead is ninja Naruto" Kakashi smiled

Zabuza laughed and nodded at Haku. "I'm sorry it has come to this" Haku began to gather chakra and made a hand sign. The air suddenly became cold and ice mirrors began to surround Sasuke forming an igloo. Haku walked to a mirror and pushed herself into the mirror. Her image appeared on the other side facing Sasuke and copies of herself reflected on each mirror. Kakashi and Akane ran to help Sasuke but Zabuza appeared in front of them.

"If enter this fight then you will fight me and that boy does not have a chance against Haku he's finished." Zabuza said gripping his sword in his hand

The fight between Sasuke and Haku began sebon were thrown from all around, Sasuke had no chance to deflecting each one. The attack continued and Sasuke kunai was knocked out of his hand and out of in front of Sakura. Sakura grabbed the Kunai charging, she threw the kunai back to Sasuke but was caught by Haku. Sasuke fell onto the ground, Haku was preparing to kill him but was attacked by shuriken, Haku fell onto the ground face first. A large cloud of smoke appeared, as it cleared through Naruto appeared "Uzumaki Naruto has arrived" he grinned

"Naruto, you're not supposed to bring attention to yourself"Akane glared at him

"Oh, come on Akane you're suppose to be my clanmate, you have to be supportive" Naruto pouted.

Akane sighed.

"Clanmate, huh, so that explains you're bright red hair. You're an Uzumaki, I guess it looks that I have to kill you all and snag the Uzumaki she could make couple thousand or even a million ryo on the market" Zabuza grinned

"Way to go Naruto" Kakashi huffed. Akane narrowed her eyes and drew her kunai close, ready to attack "Akane, Stay with Sakura and defend Tazuna"

"But-" Akane was cut off by Kakashi

"That was an order and besides I will have you stand by as backup for me. Naruto you help Sasuke, understood" Kakashi

"Yes" Akane and Naruto answered falling into their positions

"So, you're an Uzumaki, so what does that mean? why have I not heard of this clan?" Sakura asked

"I'll explain later, our priority is to defend Tazuna" Akane replied

XXX

The sound of metal continued, Akane and Sakura stood in the mist not able to see Kakashi nor Zabuza's fight. It felt like an eternity, Naruto and Sasuke battle has not ended yet as well. Akane closed her eyes and concentrated for a minute and gave up.

"Akane, what was it that you were doing?" Sakura asked

"I was trying to sense Naruto or the others, but I couldn't." Akane replied quietly

"You tried to sense?" Tazuna asked

"Wait! So you're a sensory ninja" Sakura asked again

"Yes, but I'm not very good. This mist is a jutsu which is created by chakra that is dense" Akane explained

"Can you sense Sasuke?"

Akane shook her head "No, nor Kakashi or Naruto"

Sakura eyes saddened, she hoped Sasuke as alright since he was already badly injured when Naruto arrived. Akane continued to trying to sense the others, she began to concentrate even more than before. Soon, she sensed Tazuna and Sakura behind her this was improvement, but then she started to sense chakra that she has never felt before, this chakra was red and dark. This chakra was overwhelming and was starting to make Akane tremble and started to make her feel sick ' _what is is this chakra it's making my stomach feel tight'_ Akane began to slowly breath in and out. Haku ice mirror broke and Akane sensed Haku chakra moving in high speed ' _Is she moving that fast… no she was thrown'_ Akane sensed the 'dark' chakra also moving in high speed " _What is this chakra its monstrous as if it were pure evil'._ Sakura noticed Akane trembling

"Akane are you alright? Do you sense Naruto or Sasuke" Sakura asked

" _No" she whispered_

The mist began to clear through, Naruto was the first person to be seen and soon Kakashi was seen as well in the back he had Haku in his arms.

"Hey, Naruto you're alright! Where's Sasuke" Sakura waved at Naruto. He looked down. Sakura knew what this meant

"If I go with you Sakura, then you will not be disobeying you're sensei orders" Tazuna held Sakura's hand as they ran to Sasuke

Akane closed her eyes once more and opened them again she walked and stood in front of Naruto

XXX

Sakura sat next to where Sasuke laid. His skin was pale and cold he looked peaceful. Sakura began to cry, she loved Sasuke and it was her dream to be recognized by him.

"They taught us in the academy that a shinobi should not show their emotions because it shows weakness" Sakura sobbed into Sasuke's neck

"it's true" Sakura turned to see Akane

"But-"

"He's not dead yet, so stop crying" Akane walked to Sasuke and began to pull the sebons out of his body

"But How?" Sakura wiped her tears

"I can still sense his chakra" she pulled the last senbon out of his neck and he began to wake up

"Sasuke!" she hugged him tightly and tears once again began to fall

"Ow! Sakura that hurts" Sasuke croaked

"I'm sorry but I was worried" she sobbed

"Well I'm glad your live" Tazuna said wiping his tears

"Sakura, Sasuke, let's head back to where Kakashi is" Akane said looking back at Kakashi direction

"But Sasuke-"

"She's right Sakura and I can walk" Sasuke stood up but his knees buckled "Can you help me" he mumbled

"Yes" Sakura wrapped his arm around her neck and slowly made their way

When they arrived they all saw Zabuza kill gato. Gato's hired mercenaries charged towards them.

"Multi-shadow clone jutsu" Naruto created thirty clones "damn not enough"

"Let me help you" Akane created twenty shadow clones

"Wait! how do you know-"

"I was there with you remember" Akane sighed

"Oh, Yeah" Naruto smiled

"Were still outnumbered" Akane said punching a thug in the face

"We're here to help"Inari called out with the whole village behind mercenaries retreated and team seven ran behind them fighting them

XXX

On a hill where there was a beautiful view of the sea and the village behind was were Haku and Zabuza are buried. They both had marked graves which was something few lucky shinobi will have dying after a battle. They headed back to Tazuna's house where they celebrated the completed next morning team seven said their goodbyes and began their journey home on the newly built bridge named 'The Great Naruto Bridge'.

* * *

Autor's Note

Hello there hope you enjoyed this chapter! Chunin exams are up next


	9. Chapter 9- Road to the Chunin Exams I

"Is that so" lord third took puff of his pipe and breathed out a slow cloud of smoke. team seven has arrived an hour prior to the village and are reporting to the Hokage.

"Yes, and I will write more details in my written report sir" Kakashi said

"Very well then Kakashi, I expect you to be finish by tomorrow. Team seven you are dismissed" The third said waving then to be dismissed

There was a knock at the door "Lord Hokage it's me" a clear female voice spoke through the door

"Ah, yes please come"

The door opened slowly, a teenaged kunoichi wearing the standard leaf shinobi outfit walked in she wore two necklaces a jade circled cut pendent on a string of brown leather worn down and an Uchiha pendent hanging on a silver chain, but the thing that stood out the most was the her dark onyx, pale warm skin, and black raven hair with a tint of blue in a pixie cut with spike bangs framing her feminine face.

"I have brought what you have asked for, lord third" she said with a small smile

"Kakashi who is she!" Naruto asked whispering at his sensei "She looks like Sasuke if he were a pretty girl and without the attitude". Sakura and Akane tuned in on Naruto's question also wanting to know who the kunoichi is.

The kunoichi turned to face the genins her eyes brightened up "Hello Sasuke, how was your mission? Kohana told me it was a C-ranked mission to the land of Waves, how did that go?" she said in warm tone

"Well… it's complicated, but it was a success" Kakashi answered

"Sasuke who is she?" Sakura asked whispering into his ear

Sasuke sighed "She's my sister"

"What!?" Naruto and Sakura said in shock

"Michiko, thank you for bringing these." the hokage smiled "And I will grant you to leave early, since you have most of the work done"

"Are you sure? We still need to sort the mission scrolls and mission reports" The kunoichi named Michiko said

"Don't worry Michiko, since you are the most hardworking I will make Akihiko do it since he slacks of the most" he smiled waving her to leave the genin

"Very well my lord, I will see you tomorrow" she bowed and left with the genin. They all began to walk down the hall in silence until she stopped in the hall

"So, Sasuke why don't you introduce me to your team" She smiled. Sasuke tensed and looked at the the floor

"They aren't that important Michiko" Sasuke said continuing to walk

"Sasuke, if you don't introduce them to me there will be no dinner for you when we get back home" she said with a playful tone smiling

Sasuke stopped and walked he began to introduce his team "That's Naruto, Sakura, and Akane. There I said let's go home" Sasuke began to walk again leaving them behind.

"Sasuke?" Sakura called out

"Sorry about that he usually doesn't act like this. He will open up more eventually" she smiled again "Oh, how rude of me my name is Michiko Uchiha, and like he said earlier I'm his older sister. I'm also part or soon to be part of hokage guard platoon."

"Wait what! So, you're Sasuke sister? Then why hasn't he mentioned you at all" Naruto asked

"Well I think it's because he hasn't got comfortable sharing information yet" she shrugged "but I hope that he will open up more and I trust that you all will be good friends for him" she smiled warmly again

"Don't worry Michiko-chan! I will make Sasuke not be an ass no more you can count on me because in order for me to become Hokage I need to keep my promises!" Naruto yelled giving Michiko a thumbs up. Michico looks awed and smiles

"Of course, thank you Naruto-kun." Michiko bowed "I have to go home now see you soon Naruto, Sakura, Akane" she bowed at each name. "See you soon Kakashi-senpai" she whispered gently. She bowed on final time and left

' _He got you in that habit didn't he'_ Kakashi sighed

* * *

Outside of the hokage's building team seven was going to take their leave, but Kakashi asked Akane and Naruto to say back. Sakura hesitant to leave but Kakashi insisted she was not need to for the discussion. Kakashi gestured them to walk with him and they followed, walk down the main road.

"Kakashi-sensei what did you want to discuss with me and Naruto?" Akane asked she looked up at her sensei, who was taking his time to answer her question

"Well, you see Akane I want you to help Naruto with his academics and he will help you with taijutsu by being your sparing partner" Kakashi simply said

"Wait what?" both genin said in surprise as they both stopped walking. Kakashi turned around and placed his hands on their shoulders'.

"How about I start with Naruto" Kakashi said getting Naruto took look up at him. "Naruto even though you are strong young shinobi, you need academics to help you and I know what happened with Mizuki, he made it hard for you to learn, but that's why I'm having Akane help you" Naruto pouted. "Akane, you are quite skilled, your academics are exquisite, but your taijutsu looks as if you are always sparing with a dummy and it takes you awhile for you to change that form."

Naruto and Akane stood in silence taking in Kakashi words which were true. Akane was good with taijutsu, but if she were fighting with a practice dummy and it takes her while to change into sparing with a person. Naruto is smart but he tends to think with emotion rather with head, and what makes it worse was with the whole thing with Mizuki which set him back. Naruto improved a lot when he met Akane, but there still was a whole lot to improve.

"So" Kakashi said catching their attention "Since, you are both from the same clan and team, I think this is a good way for you two to bond" Kakashi said pushing the two together cheek to cheek " Tomorrow you will start your training, ok. Now I want you to have a good night's sleep and train hard" Kakashi let them both go and vanished

Akane sighed.

Naruto was deep in thoughts "Akane?"

Akane turned to him "What Naruto"

"Since we are from the same clan, I was wondering if you can teach me about it" He said "This is the closest thing I have to a family and I want to know more." his voice grew serious

"Meet me tomorrow here on the main road. we will got to the library, but first before we go to the library I need to run some errands and then we go to the library okay"

Naruto grinned "Yes" He saluted at her "I will see you tomorrow" Naruto ran home waving her

* * *

Sasuke arrived home he opened the door and took his sandals off at the entrance then he walked to the kitchen where he was greeted by Michiko

"Already home? I thought you would have came sooner" she said placing two bowls of rice on the table.

"I went for a walk" Sasuke sat down and folded his arm across his chest

Michiko set the food down and sighed "Sasuke I want you to be friendly with your teammates" Sasuke frowned at her "I don't know how they are right now, but you will have to work on your team work. Kakashi hasn't told you this,but the chunin exams are about to begin and having teamwork will make it easy for you to pass"

"Fine I will do it, but I still don't care for them especially Naruto" Sasuke said as he ate his rice

"Why don't you like Naruto?"

"First off, he's an idiot, he does not think before he acts" he says taking a bite of food

"But is he a good?" She asked

"Well his taijutsu has improved since the academy, but he still is rusty. It takes him a while to get used to the fighting. He can create around what appears to be one hundred shadow clones, but he's idiot so none of that works for him" Sasuke said

"I see, so he has improved a lot." Michiko folds her hands rests her chin on them and smiles "Are you a little jealous, Sasuke?" Sasuke frown once again looked away "Does this have to do with what happened in your mission? Tell me Sasuke, what happened during the mission to the Land of Waves" Sasuke sighed and he began to explain the mission.

* * *

The next morning, Naruto woke up early and headed to the main road to meet up with Akane. He was excited, he was going learn more about his clan, but to have someone who was close to being similar to a family. Naruto did not have a chance to ask Akane about the clan in the academy, since Akane looked intimidating thoses day and still does. Naruto smiled to himself ' _Today I will learn more about my cool clan. I wonder what cool super jutsus that are secreted only for our clan_ ' he giggled. He looked up and saw Akane who was also made it on the main road.

"Hey Akane!" he waved at her

"Hello Naruto" she greeted him

"So, what errands do you have to do?" he asked

"First I want to by sealing scrolls and a couple of practice scrolls"

"Scrolls for what"

"I want scrolls for storing things like clothing or weapons, and now that I have made some money I will by some scrolls to practice fuinjutsu since they are expensive"

"Fuinjutsu, that has to do will making seals, right?"

Akane nodded "Well at least you learned something in the Academy" Naruto stuck his tongue out at her

* * *

The both entered the shop and Akane bought two scrolls, five practice scrolls, a pack of fuinjutsu sheets, ink, and brushes. Akane finished shopping, Naruto and her headed for the library. Once they arrived, they walked towards the checkout table.

"Hello there is there anything you need?" the librarian asked

"Hello, and yes I would like to check out the Uzumaki history books and rosters of the clan members"

The librarian headed back into the back room and came back out, handing Akane one book. "I'm sorry, I can not give you anymore than this, the rest of the books are only for jonin" Naruto and Akane both thought of the same thing ' _Kakashi_ '. "And no, you can not ask your sensei to check the books out for you. As for the roster, it's a S-ranked secret" Naruto pouted and Akane sighed

"Very well then, thank you for your help" Akane bowed and left with Naruto. They made it back to the main road. "So, where do you want to study that at your house or mine?"

Naruto placed his hand under his chin 'My place is a total mess, and I don't have much space to spare so'. "How about your house" He grinned. Akane nodded. The continued to walk down the road. People were staring at them and they began to whispering to each other. Akane ignored them, she looked at Naruto, who was looking down. the walk was silent . Akane apartment building was in view, they both walked up the side stairs and Akane unlocked the door. They entered the apartment and took off their sandals at the entrance.

"Wow, your apartment is big and clean too" Naruto walked towards the sitting area "Wow you also have a nice view, man I wish I lived in apartment like this, your parents must make a lot money to afford this place" Naruto sat on the couch and Akane stood behind

"Well, sort of my parents bought this apartment and intended to move in, but they did not get the chance" Akane said walking towards the window

"Wait, oh sorry I didn't know" Naruto started to feel embarrassed for his comment. he began to wonder what type of people her parents were. "So. what were your parents like?"

"My parents? Well, My mother was um… a skilled kunoichi, she serious, but she had a playful personality, she was also good at cooking. My father was … also a skilled shinobi, he was laid back, he joked a lot, and he liked to get on mother's nerves. I think that's what I can only say, they were always on missions and I was about four years old when they died, so I don't remember much about them" She looking out the window. "How about you Naruto what about your parents?"

"I-I never met them." Naruto said quietly. Akane turned to look at him, he was looking down and look back up, and then out of the window. "Old man Hokage said they both died when the nine tailed fox attacked the village" Naruto answered. They both sat in silence for a moment. Naruto breathed in and out and smiled "How about you start teaching me about our clan" Akane nodded she smiled a little, he reminded her of her father

"First we'll start off with our clan's abilities, as Uzumaki's we have inherited high levels of stamina, chakra, and life force" Naruto process this information and slowly he understood and began to make sense.

"I have a question, if we are a clan, then shouldn't there be more of us?"

"I was about to get there" she sighed " The Uzumaki clan is not originally from the hidden leaf. The Uzumaki originate from the land of whirlpools and we were allies to the hidden leaf. The Uzumaki clan was skilled in fuinjutsu, we aided the hidden leaf during the wars with our fuinjutsu, but during the beginning toward the middle of the second shinobi war, many villages feared our sealing abilities and gathered together and destroyed our clan. Some people did survive but they headed different paths after the destruction, My parent migrated to the hidden leaf after with a small group of survivors." Naruto closed his eyes and thought about Haku, they both were more in common than they originally thought. Naruto then remembered Zabuza's comment about Akane

"So, Akane, Zabuza said that you were an Uzumaki and that your hair made sense?" Akane froze, how would she explain this to him?

"Well, um… it's a common trait in our clan to have vibrant red hair" she blushed bright red

"So, I have a clan of tomatoes? great!" Naruto said jokingly and laughed, but stopped when he sensed Akane's demonic aura surrounding her she walked in front of Naruto who was trembling in fear of death. Akane cracked her knuckles.

"Don't ever compare me to a tomato, I hate tomatoes" she growled "Understood!" Naruto nodded rapidly. Akane let herself calm down "Let's start studying alright"

* * *

Kakashi along with the third Hokage stood outside of the apartment. The third took his pipe out of his mouth "I hope he learned his lesson, but I also believe this would be good for him is he survives"

Kakashi chuckled."Yes, I think with this little training they will be ready for the chunin exams. Have you informed the other jonin senseis about this"

"No, not yet until two weeks I will start to hand out applications"

"Very well, team seven will be there. I'm sure of it"

"You seem to have a lot faith in your team, Kakashi" The Hokage smiled

"No, I don't, but they are stubborn and when they put their mind to it they are committed " Kakashi crossed his arms nodded at the Hokage and both left the apartment

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Yay another chapter! I rushed to finish this chapter and some of the information might be incorrect (I tried, sorry). Any how I hope you enjoy the interaction with Akane and Naruto, it was tough to figure out without changing the character that much (If that makes any sense). Also Sasuke has a sister, I would say that she is 16 years old same age for Kohana as well. Also more explanation on the Uchihas will be more interaction with them and maybe some Saukra, maybe in the next chapter.**

 **Michiko means 美智子 "beautiful wise** **child"**


	10. Chapter 10-Road to the Chunin Exams II

Birds chirp loudly thought the sky in Konoha. Akane looks up at the blue sky to see them flying across. Team seven was assigned a D-ranked mission to pick out weeds from a garden. It was one of the many missions they had since the land of waves mission which they returned from almost two weeks ago. These past two weeks Akane has been helping Naruto with his academics while she practices her taijutsu with him. To her surprise Naruto was a faster learner once you figure out his style of learning which happens to be different to the way they taught in the academy. He was a tactile learner, he did not learn from books or reading theories of how they worked. While they have been on couple of D-ranked missions Akane showed Naruto how things worked which helped him a lot, but came to the point where he shout in the stop in the middle of a mission to point out the things had he learned, which annoyed them all.

They waited on the bridge and Kakashi was late per usual. The rest of the members stood in silence, watching villager passing by one by one. It f truly felt like an eternity had passed until

*poof*

A cloud of smoke appeared behind them on the rail and as the smoke cleared through Kakashi was crouched down with his hand up."Sorry I'm late but a cat walked-"

"In front of you and you took the long way around" team seven finished his sentence

"Yes, I should be more careful there are a lot of them around my neighborhood . So I hope you can understand"

They made their way to the house with a large yard with the weed mostly covering the ground. They picked each weed one by one and the pile they have started grew and grew. Naruto dropped an arm full of weeds into the pile they had started.

"Why can't Sasuke use his fire ball jutsu to burn the weeds. The whole yard is covered with them and I don't think they will notice either way" His teammates looked up at him and agreed.

"Well that's true, but that's not what the mission asked for. If the client wanted he could have just hired Sasuke and not you which would have been more reasonable, but you all would not have made any money from this job and besides this is a learning experience"

"A learning experience of what exactly Kakashi-sensei" Sakura asked wiping the sweat of her forehead off

"Learning experience of how this mission could have been finished much easier" he shrugged with his arms crossed.

The mission continued until noon. The team walked into the an ally where they were on their way to report back to the Hokage. large birds began to chirp loudly and flew in circles. Kakashi looked up and dismissed himself and left with a cloud of smoke behind.

"Eh, so what now?" Naruto looked down at his feet and a light went off in his head. He had a large grin on his face "Hey Sakura! Do want to go out and eat lunch together?

"No thanks Naruto" Sakura walked away and moved next to Sasuke "Hey Sasuke do want to eat lunch together" she smiled

"I'll pass. I'm going to be training and I think you should do the same. You have the worst skills than Naruto" Sasuke walked away, Sakura looked down and an aura of depression overcame her

' _I'm worst than Naruto'_ The thought repeated itself in her head.

"Hey don't worry Sakura-chan, don't listen to what that teme said about you. You could train with me and Akane" Akane tensed up with Naruto's invitation to Sakura.

"No thanks Naruto" Sakura replied with a montone

Naruto sighed but then felt the feeling as something was behind him. He turned around to see a box covered with a rock pattern paper. His eyebrow twitched with annoyance"That has to be one of the worst disguise I have ever seen!" He shouted pointing at it

*poof*

Various clouds of different colored smoke appeared. Coughing was heard in the smoke and three silhouettes could be seen as the smoke faded. "I Think we added too much gun powder" a boy's voice said muddled by the coughing

"Wow boss you're smart to see through our disguise" the boy in the middle, wearing a long blue scarf around his neck.

"Who are those two?" Naruto asked pointing at the boy wearing glasses and the girl with orange pigtails standing on either side of the boy with blue introduced themselves the boy in the middle was Konohamaru, the other boy was Udon and the girl was moegi. And apparently they look up to Naruto as their idol, calling him "boss". They even wore the same goggles as Naruto did.

Naruto himself could not find the word to express his feelings. He had the emotion of happiness mixed with worry if that were possible.

"Come on Konohamaru, uh shouldn't you be at the academy?" he asked realizing it was a school day.

"Iruka-sensei had to attend a meeting with the Hokage along with most other senseis." Konohamaru answered.

"How did you know that the senseis having to attend a meeting with the Hokage? Even if you are his grandson you wouldn't know this." Akane asked.

"Oh, I heard my sister complain about the meeting, she also had to attend due to security being increased" he replied

"Eh, why would there be an increase of security? Is the village in danger or something?" Naruto shook his head with confusion

"Hey, Naruto I have been meaning to ask, who are these two girls?" Konohamaru asked pointing at Akane and Sakura.

"Uh, they are… uh" Naruto blushed he began to rub the back of his head with his right hand.

"So, who are they?" Moegi asked

"Yeah" Udon also asked

"Ah, I see!" Konohamaru said excitement "Their both your girlfriends! Wow boss you have been busy!"

Naruto turned bright red

"What!" Akane and Sakura shouted.

"Konohamaru! R-Run!" Naruto shouted

Sakura chased after Konohamaru and the two academy student while Akane and Naruto ran after the group.

Konohamaru ran into a stranger in black clothing with purple face paint. He picked Konohamaru by his collar of his shirt and brought him up to his face. "So, who do think you are running into people little punk"

"Put him down Kankuro, you know you will pay for it later" The blonde kunoichi said standing a foot behind the stranger named Kankuro.

As Akane and Naruto got closer they saw the strangers headband.

"That symbol on his headband, he's a shinobi from the hidden village in the sand, right?" Naruto asked Akane.

Akane nodded

"What are you guys here? do you have a pass to be allowed in the village" Sakura asked

"We do pinky" the blonde kunoichi said pulling an photo id out.

"So what are two doing in the village?" Naruto asked

"Have you been living under rock? You must be rookies then how about that. Well we came here to attend the chunin exams" the kunoichi replied

"the chunin exams?" Naruto said slowly

Sakura sighed "You don't know what the chunin exams are? Their-"

"I know what they are, but I didn't know they were happening."

"You really are rookies" the blonde kunoichi said again

"Hey we have time until he gets here, why don't we mess with these punks" Kankuro said tightening his grip on Konohamaru's shirt

"Let go of me you jerk"

"Put him down now!" Naruto shouted charging forward to the sand shinobi. Kankuro brought his hand down leveled to his hip and moved his fingers manipulating chakra strings hidden in the ground which Naruto did realized until he fell on to the ground. "What the hell"

"Naruto, he's a puppet user" Akane said

"Wow you're smart for a little rookie. I'm quite impressed" Kankuro smirked

"If you are smart yourself then let him go now"

"That's quite big words to come from a pretty girl like you, but I hate brats who run their mouths and make big threats, so when I hear them I just want to break them in half" Kankuro said ready to throw his fist at konohamaru, but a small rock hit Kankuro's wrist making him drop Konohamaru on to the ground with a loud thump. Kankuro looked at the direction where the rock was thrown.

"You're a long way from home and way out of your league" Sasuke said sitting on top of a branch on a tree tossing and catching a pebble in his left hand.

"Oh great another wimp to tick me off" grunted under his breath

Sasuke caught the pebble he was tossing and crushed it to dust "Get lost"

"Hey punk get down here" kankuro started pulled a loose bandage that was tied to his back "You're the type of person I hate the most all attitude and nothing to back it up" Bandages flew in the air

"Are you really going to use the crow for this" The blonde kunoichi said with a hint of fear and worry

"Kankuro, back off"

The genin all gasped, especially Sasuke, he turned to the voice he heard behind him. A dark red haired shinobi with green eyes, black rings around his eyes, written in red kanji was the word love on his left forehead. He stood up side down with his arms crossed. The killer aura could be felt which sent a shiver down everyone who stood close to him. "You're an embarrassment to our village"

Kankuro tried to respond but he could only stutter "U-uh..hey Gaara." he faked smiled trying to hide his fear.

' _How did he get there? He didn't make a sound'_ Sasuke frowned

' _But how? I sensed a small fraction of his chakra but it suddenly appeared. He maybe a genin, but those skills are for a jonin or higher skilled shinobi'_ Akane looked out of her peripheral vision and could see the Sakura and Naruto trying to stay calm

"Have you forgotten the reason why we came to this village?"

"I k-know, but they challenged us. They really started the whole thing really."

"Just shut up…. Or I kill you" The shinobi named Gaara said in a low tone

"Uh right I totally understand Gaara I was totally out of line" Kankura rambled on not knowing how to keep responding

"I apologis for any trouble he has caused" Gaara dispersed into sand and reappeared net to Kankuro "Let's go. We didn't come here to play games" the two sand shinobi nodded in agreement

"Hey! You Identify yourself" Sasuke said jumping from the tree he sat from

"Huh- you mean me?" The blonde Kunoichi said all flattered

"No, The one next to you with the gourd on his back" Sasuke pointed at Gaara

The sand shinobi stopped in his spot and turned around "I'm Gaara of the desert. I am curious of your name as well"

"I am Sasuke Uchiha" Sasuke replied ' _Looks like things got interesting around here'_

"Hey, I bet you are dying to know my name?" Naruto grinned

"Naruto! We talked about this already" Akane whispered at Naruto

"What's your name" Gaara asked

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki" Naruto grinned giving them a thumbs up

"I see" Gaara studied the genin and studied Naruto more closely. The sand shinobi all turned back and walked back to their hotel room

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Squad Seven stood on the bridge where they usually waited for Kakashi and as usual he was late. To add more to the routine Sakura and Naruto began to complain of his tardiness, but then finally poofed on top of the rail.

"Good Morning everyone" He waved "Sorry i'm late,but I got lost on the path of life"

"You're a liar!" Sakura and Naruto shouted

"I know this is a bit sudden, but I recommended all four of you to precipitate in the chunin exams. This is the application forms" Kakashi handed each of them a form "This is voluntary so if one of you does not participate, then you'll still be able to enter"

"What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked looking up from the form

"Well most genin teams are made up of three genin and a jonin, but since it was an even number of you I was the only jonin sensei to get a squad of four. All four of you can still enter if there is another hidden village with a squad of four which we still have yet to learn of"

"So, you're saying That we might not be able to enter the chunin exams because there is four of us and unless one of us does not enter the exams or by any chance another hidden village also happens to have a squad of four?" Naruto asks

"Precisely, Now just in case if you all cannot enter one of you must volunteer to not enter and wait for another opening for next year. I want you all to decide who will take that role among yourselves. I know it's a tough decision, but sign the form if you want to enter the exams. The exams are scheduled to start next week at the academy at room 301 at 3:00 pm, that's it. You're all dismissed" Kakashi disappeared

Team seven walked on the streets all thinking to themselves

' _I have to pass the chunin exams! Once I get that down then becoming hokage will be easy, so there's no way I'm giving up my slot for not now not ever!' Naruto foolishly grinned to himself_

' _Becoming a chunin, it's a higher rank and if I pass on the first try then that would show my skills as a shinobi. I cannot afford to lose this opportunity'_ Akane looked up at the sky with her eye's full of determination

' _I hope I get the chance to fight that guy, he seems more of a challenge than anyone else here. Which will help me when I defeat him. There's no chance of me giving up my chance to fight him, Gaara of the desert._ Sasuke clenched his fists in his pockets

' _I-I can't keep up with them. Naruto, Akane, and Sasuke. I can't even keep up with Naruto and he's the dead last of the class and yet he's more skilled than me. I don't want to give up now. I don't want to lose Sasuke, but how am I going to pass these exams?' Sakura frowns with worry_

 _XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

By Sunset the main gates were flooded by genins entering the village from their respective villages. Naruto sat on rail of his balcony watching genin from all around enter a new environment. He took a deep breath. It was a new experience for all of them, so he was worried. Naruto turned his sitting position to face the Hokage mountain looking at each stone face as the sunset into the darkness of the night sky

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto strolled through the park where met Akane who was also there for a stroll. Both walked in the same direction until they both were stopped by Konohamaru and his friends.

"Hey Naruto! Want to play with us?" Konohamaru asked

"Uh, Sure?" Naruto answered not knowing what he was getting himself into

Konohamaru ran to the two genin "Hey so you also want to play uhhh.."

"My name is Akane and the answer is no" she walked away

"Aw you're no fun" Konohamaru pouted

"Yeah" Moegi said but then suddenly screamed "Help me" she shouted an unknown shinobi ran off with Moegi

"Akane! We have stop him and save Moegi" Naruto Shouted as he ran after them

"Right! Konohamaru go contact Iruka or a higher ranked shinobi go now!" Akane followed behind Naruto

Akane and Naruto chased after the shinobi, he was moving in a fast pace in the forest. The continued to chase him until they lost him in the lush forest.

"Damn, we lost him! We have to save Moegi!" Naruto slammed his fist on the tree he stood on

"Calm down Naruto. Don't let your anger turn into frustration" Akane closed her eyes making a ram seal, she concentrated to sense where the kidnapper was

"Akane what are you doing we don't have time-"

"Naruto, please be quiet! I'm trying to sense where Moegi is and the shinobi that took her" Naruto nodded. She once again concentrated, the in her mind everything was dark void until a blue flame appeared next to her ' _that's Naruto's chakra now I have to focus on finding Moegi'_ Her mind moved through the forest until she saw a small blue flame of chakra ' _found you! Two miles northeast Wait this chakra feels familiar. No, I can't take chances'._ "Naruto follow me!" Akane jumped on a higher branch on full speed "Once we get close we'll slow down and sneak our way in-"

"No we don't have time for that! Moegi-"

"Naruto keep calm. The shinobi could be holding her hostage and with one bad move she'll be dead. So if we take if from afar then we could save her"

Naruto took a deep breath and nodded in agreement "I'll make the plan" He said pushing off the branch behind him.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Word count: 2889**

 **Hello it's been a while. Life has been what life is (If that makes any sense). Anyways please leave give me feedback on how I'm writing these (which I suck at still.)**

So, Akane does use Mind's Eye of the Kagura, more on that in the future. Subject on Sakura, well I said this may times, but have not done it yet is that Sakura will be a bamf. I write her as "weak" to emphasize how much she will change, also more on that in the future.


	11. Chapter 11- The Chunin Exams Begin!

Naruto landed on the soft grass. He took a deep breath, the thoughts of the plan he had come up with minutes ago raced through his mind and now came the time to execute it.

"Hey" Naruto called out getting the attention of the shinobi. He had tied Moegi on the tree's stump with rope and shurikens which he done messily. He took a step back and pulled a kunai out, he moved the kunai close to Moegi's neck.

"Ah, so you came. You came much faster than I expected" The shinobi chuckled "I want the Forbidden scroll and I'll let the girl go" Naruto tensed up "Don't stand there! Get me the scroll now! Or the girl's life will be in danger"

"What if I say no"

"Then you don't care what happens to the girl!"

"What girl?" Naruto smirks "I only see you and the straw dummy next to you" The shinobi whipped his head around. Naruto was not bluffing, Moegi was replaced. The shinobi looked up to find Akane holding Moegi in her arms on the tree next to him.

"Huh, so you have a partner. Guess I have to take you down as well" The shinobi took a step forward and fell face first. A net covered him and Akane threw kunais to secure him in place.

Akane jumped down onto the ground with Moegi.

"Boss!" "Naruto!"

The group turned towards the sound. Kohana, Konohamaru, and Udon who came to the rescue.

"Naruto, what happened?" Kohana asked, looking around studying the area.

"Well you see, a shinobi guy came out of nowhere and kidnaped Moegi, so me and Akane came to rescue her" Naruto grinned "And we caught him".

"Really?" Kohana right eyebrow rose "Well sorry to break it to you, but you didn't catch any shinobi guy" she pointed at the net "He escaped".

Naruto looked all over the area. His shoulders slumped down "He used a substitution jutsu".

"Yeah" Kohana placed a hand on his shoulder "I'll go report this to the Hokage, since it appears that security is lacking. You guys head back to the village" The group nodded and did as they were told.

Naruto staried at the ground while they walked back. He was disappointed in himself. How could have let the shinobi escape. He thought of the plan he had made, he was to cocky and let his guard down and then it hit him. He ran towards Akane asking her many question to which she knew she had to answer all of them.

* * *

The day had finally arrived. The first portion of the chunin exams were going to begin. Akane and her teammates made it to the testing area on time even with the disruptions that got them off track multiple times this morning, but they made it which only matters in the end.

The proctor handed out the exam and the room quickly turned silent. Akane skimmed through the questions to get an idea of what they were asking and it turns out to be chunin questions none of which average genius will know. Akane grips the pencil in her hand.

Will her teammates pass this exam?

Akane for sure knew Sakura can probably answer most of the questions and Sasuke as well, but for Naruto that was a different story.

Akane continues to fidget with her pencil. And then she heard number being called out. The proctors sitting around the room were calling out the genin who were caught cheating. She grit her teeth, something didn't feel right. Akane used her eye's mind, she looked around the room, it was filled with blue flames. She continues to look around and realized that there are chunins suppressing their chakra, to genin average storage. She looked around and found Naruto, Sasuke, and Gara, they had larger reserves than the other genins, they stuck the most. As she investigated more she heard the jonin proctor, named Ibiki, give a speech. Akane didn't pay attention until she heard a fist slam onto a desk.

She immediately opens her eyes to find Naruto standing up in the class calling out the proctor, proclaiming he will never give up and he would pass the chunin exams.

Akane looked over to Sasuke who was trying to keep calm and then she turned to look at Sakura was furious with Naruto's foolish outburst, but who can blame her. Sakura sighed and nodded at Akane and then Sasuke. They all stood up.

"We're not giving up that easily" Sasuke said, smirking at Naruto gave him a bright smile. Akane and Sakura both nodded in agreement. Eventually other teams began doing the same thing and the whole room stood up in an uproar.

The proctor chuckled and told them they had passed. The room when to complete silence. The proctor began to explain the written exam and then proceeded to remove his bandana showing the deeps scars he gotten from torture. He began to explain more, but was interrupted by another proctor who came crashing in through the window. The proctor who was a woman with mauve color hair explains the next exam which would take place tomorrow in the forest of death.

* * *

Team seven entered the Forest of Death. The air was thick making it hard to breath. Team seven ran straight into the tree line and stopped when they were far enough from the entrance.

"We should move towards the center of the forest and 'claim territory' we will have a higher chance of waiting then fighting for a scroll right away. Akane suggested

"I agree, but we don't want to be too close to the towers. Some other teams might have the similar idea, so it would be better to move stealthily through the forest to avoid other teams" Sasuke finished, they had a plan and they started to move again

Sakura looked at her teammates nervously. The idea of being here still has not settled in her mind. She has faith in her teammates, but what they when through at The land of Waves, she didn't want to go through that again. She vowed to herself to protect herself so others won't risk themselves, but has she given stronger in the last three weeks? No, she hasn't. Sakura doesn't want to left behind her teammates she has already come this far. Is it too late to give up? Sakura's mind wandered trying to find an answer to ease her mind.

"Sakura" Naruto called out her name quietly not getting the attention of the other two "Are you alright? You seem out of it."

Sakura looked up at him. His eyes were soft and looked sweet. She tried to swol the emotional lump in her throat. "I'm fine" she said quietly. " I was just wondering what awaits up ahead. This place is called The Forest of Death, and I think name says it all" Sakura rambled.

"Are you sure?" Naruto press on

"Yeah" She smiles

"If there's anything wrong tell us okay, Sakura. We're a team after all, remember what Kakashi told us"

Sakura's eyed widen. Naruto's words sank in and she felt reassured "yeah" she smiled

"Right, then let's catch up" They jumped from branch to branch until they caught up with Akane and Sasuke who were waiting for them both.

* * *

Nightfall came sooner than expected. The group camped in the tree tops and set up a fake camp on the group a mile or less away.

The next morning the group were on the move, making sure they did not leave a trail. They were moving slower that the day before due to the cross fire they came across. By noon, they made it to a clearing. In the clearing, a massive tree lays on it's side with the roots sticking out, this was a good spot to take a break.

" This is taking too long'' Naruto grunts "It's our second day and we have nothing".

Akane took a deep breath "Naruto, calm down. We-"

"We still have three days left. Time is running out and we have not came across a team with a different scroll than us yet!" Naruto spits out

"Then that means we have to split" Akane said " this is a good area to camp out at and we are near the tower, but the problem is we have to split. Two go out to search of a scroll while the other two guard here" she finishes

"It's too much of a risk" Sasuke points out

"I agree" Akane replies

"Me and Sasuke scout out the area." Naruto speaks out " We'll scout not to far from here"

"But what if you run into trouble" Sakura points out worriedly

"Akane can use her eye's mind thing" Naruto grins " We can flare our chakra if anything happens"

"Eye's mind?" Sasuke eyebrow rose

"Akane's a sensory ninja, it the technique she uses" Sakura answers

"If that's the case then we have a plan" Sasuke said, Naruto nods in agreement. Both boys decided to go in different directions, Akane protested, but knew they had made up their mind. Once the boys left Akane and Sakura set up camp in the roots of the tree.

Akane gently laid a scroll on the ground.

"What is that?" Sakura asks curiously, hoping Akane would not give her a smartass answer.

"A scroll" Akane replied plainly.

Sakura's eyebrow twitched "Huh, you don't say" she sighs "So what do you have written in there?"

Akane released the seal and boxes appear in the center.

"Soldiers pills" Sakura's face turned slightly green

"That is why I also brought these" Akane opened another scroll and dumped out candy bars

"Akane! You're a lifesaver" Sakura cries

* * *

Sasuke came back an hour later. He came across another team, but they had the same scroll as them. Naruto had yet to come back. Akane decided to look for him and left the camp.

Akane moves from branch to branch searching for Naruto. She climbs up a tall tree and use her eyes mind. She scans the area, but finds no sign for Naruto.

Akane sighs, and they she felt something behind her. She turns around rapidly to find a giant snake hissing at her. The snake charges at her, she jumps to the side, onto a tree branch, but the branch breaks. She falls down breaking each branch breaking them as she fell. The snake found her once again and charges at her, she pulls out a kunai when someone grabs her and brings her to another tree top.

"Are you alright?" the familiar voice asks "That was a huge fall, ya know"

"Well if you had came back sooner then I would have not fallen" Akane shot back

"Okay, okay I get" Naruto replies " This guys has been after me and I moved him far away from camp as possible"

"I have a plan" Naruto grins and hands her a pack of smoke bombs.

Akane sighs knowing she has to help him.

His plan is to get swallowed by the snake and kill it by using multi-shadow clone jutsu. What did she really expect from him. Both Uzumakis made there was back to the camp when they heard fighting. Akane used her eye's mind to figure out what was happening. Akane sensed Sasuke and Sakura's chakra and the chakra of another person. Akane warned Naruto, but Naruto charged in. She followed him.

Akane landed on a branch next to Naruto. Sasuke was protecting Sakura from a hidden grass ninja, who they saw earlier at the gates. The grass ninja's body was warped around the branch Sasuke and Sakura stood on like a snake. Naruto called Sasuke a fake while Sakura yelled at him to stop. Akane used her eye's mind and sensed the grass ninja chakra. Their chaka was dark and sinister it sent chills down her spin. Akane open eyes, the grass ninja jumped back and summoned a snake, similar to the one Naruto killed. The snake charged forward at Sasuke, but was stopped by Naruto.

Naruto's body was covered with red chakra.

Akane trembled. ' _This chakra, it the same as the one at the land of waves.'_ She tried to calm herself ' _Naruto, what is this chakra it's not you'_ her legs collapsed underneath her.

The fight between Naruto and the Snake ninja continues until the ninja uses his snake to hold Naruto down. The grass ninja brings Naruto up to his level and does hands signs and then Naruto red chakra vanishes. The ninja throws Naruto, but luckily Sakura throws a kunai that pins Naruto to the trunk of a tree.

The grass ninja jumps off of the snake and extends his neck and bits onto Sasuke neck. they then releases Sasuke and he falls back, Sakura catches him as he screams in agonising pain.

"Sasuke!" Akane calls out his name, she throws kunais at the ninja, but catches them all. He throws a kunai back at her, cutting her on the cheek. She pulls another kunai out, and the grass ninja appears in front of her. Akane falls on her back and draws the kunai close to her as she back away from them.

"What a rare sediment to come across." The ninja sinisterly chuckles. Akane stares at them, her arms are trembling with fear. The ninja bends down, lifting Akane's chin up with their long index finger and thumb "Finding an Uzumaki is rare these days. Especially a full blooded ones. Just like I told the Uchiha, come with me if you want to use your true potential." The ninja chuckles again "My name is Orochimaru"

The ninja named Orochimaru, steps back and vanishes.

* * *

Akane and Sakura brought both boys down to the roots of the tree. Naruto and Sasuke had fevers and it took around two days for it to lower. Akane sense the surrounding area and sensed a group of shinobi heading their way. She was about to warn Sakura when they attacked. They were shinobi from the hidden sound. Akane fell back next to Sakura, both played defensive. The sound shinobi continued to attack, Sakura then got caught by the sound kunoichi, she had her hand wrapped by Sakura's hair. Akane knocked down one of the shinobi and ran towards Sakura, but a kunai stabs her leg. She falls on the ground and attempts to get up.

' _Damn_ ' Akane grunts, trying to push herself up. Akane looks up to see Sakura cutting her hair off with her kunai. Sakura punches the kunoichi in the jaw and runs to protect her.

"I won't let you hurt my teammates!" Sakura draws a kunai out in front her, ready to strike the next enemy.

' _Damn, my leg. I'm useless'_ Akane breathed heavily ' _Wait, that book'_

 _Akane laid a scroll down on her bed, she finally figured out to open it. She puts her hands together, taking a deep breath. Her hands move swiftly as she forms each seal._

" _Release!" Akane looks at scroll, it was still sealed. "Damn, I followed the…. Damn" Akane pressed her hands on her temples, she took a deep breath releasing her frustration. She inspected the scroll, the scroll was intact, she moved closer to the scroll hoping to find what was wrong. Out of nowhere, the scroll seal released, Akane lost balance and fell head first on to the hardwood floor. After rubbing the pain way, Akane picked up a thick orange book with the Uzumaki crest on the cover, she flipped the book open. "Being an Uzumaki you have an large chakra reserves, that being you can heal your comrades or yourself by biting your flesh. Your body or the person who has bitten you will absorb your chakra and will begin to heal"_

Akane pushes herself up, swinging her left arm to her mouth, sinking her teeth into her skin. The pain runs down her entire body, but she can feel the chakra flowing to her injuries, healing them instantly.

"What the hell is she doing?" one of the sound members said "Has she gone insane?"

Akane now healed, runs to the sound ninja who wounded her, she kicks him in the chest and falls onto his other teammate. Akane then runs to Sakura, who is still keeping up with the female ninja. Akane intercepted and grabs Sakura moving back to the tree were the boys were.

Akane and Sakura make it near the tree until their bodies went paralyzed in place, there was a ringing sound echoing. The three man sound team landed in front of the leaf girls, preparing to finish them, the female draws her senbons and grins, but she falls onto to the hard ground.

Rock Lee stands in front of them and the rest of his team. The continue to fight the sound ninja until Sasuke intervenes. Akane senses a dark aura of chakra coming from Sasuke, She can only guess this outburst came from Orochimaru. The sound ninja eventual retreat leaving their scroll to team seven, and Naruto finally woke up from his unconscious state.

Tenten walks up to Akane " Hey, Akane! Do you have any medical stuff with you?"

Akane nods "Look, I don't have much, but I'll trade you a weapon scroll"

"What type of weapon scroll?"

"Kunais with wires, it wraps the enemy in the wires when released, it really helpful especially for mid to long range attacks"

"I guess, here I have a few bandages and ointment"

The trade was complete team seven and took separate ways. Team seven headed towards the tower since they had the two scrolls. Once they made it to the tower and answered the riddle they waited until the rest of the genins finished. Meanwhile Kakashi came to check up on them and making sure they got medical attention, to which was more of him dragging them to the medics. While arriving, a beautiful woman with long brown hair walks up to them.

"Kakashi-san" She bows and turns towards Naruto and Akane who both stood next to Kakashi, the woman smiles and hugs each of them "Naruto-kun you've grown up so quickly! I can't believe you are going to become a chunin and you've only just graduated from the academy not too long ago" The woman cried with joy "Akane you've also have grown so much. I haven't seen your beautiful red hair in such a long time" The woman now proceeds to pat Akane on the head, Akane on the other hand, her face turned pink but hid it from her teammates.

"Uh, who is she?" Sakura asks, she was feeling a little sorry for Akane and Naruto for they were being crushed by hugs

"That's the Hokage's daughter" Sasuke answered

"Wait, what! The Hokage had a daughter!" Sakura turns to Kakashi to further explain

Kakashi nods "Yes Sakura, This is lady Kazumi, she's the Daughter of the third Hokage and the mother of Kohana and Konohamaru"

"What! No way, she looks to young to be Kohana's mom!" Sakura studies her, she has fair skin, she has dark doe eyes, long brown hair parted to her left. Her outfit consisted of navy blue spandex and the jonin jacket along with a long white doctor coat.

"Well, thank you Sakura-chan" She smiled back making Sakura slightly blush. Lady Kazumi turns to Kakashi and nods at him, Kakashi nods back "Sasuke-kun will you come with me and it's not an option" Sasuke grits his teeth and Follows her. The rest of the team seven moves to the common area where they waited for the other teams.

The next day, all teams were taken to what seemed to be an arena to the genin. The Hokage came out with two guards next to him, Kohana and a brown haired male around the same age as her. The Hokage asks the genins if the would like to quit to fall out of the formation, to which many did. Akane inspects the area, all of the genin from her graduating class stood information except for Sasuke. Akane suspects the hokage knows about Orochimaru and the mark left on Sasuke's neck.

She collects her thoughts, she looks over to where Naruto was talking to Sakura. Akane body tenses up, the red chakra covering Naruto's body making him look like a feral creature, but most of all the dark evil aura. The thought it made the air hard to breath.

A joinin walks to the center of the arena and tells the genins to meet up with their sensies on the balcony. While walk up to where Kakashi is standing Michiko is standing there with Sasuke"Hello, it nice to see you all again" Michiko waves, "Don't worry Sasuke-kun is fine, he just spent time with me. Sorry if I made you guys worried, I was just happy to see my little brother pass the first and second test." She smiles "I'm also happy that you all made it this far."

"Of course, Michiko-chan! We're all going to pass and become chunins, believe it! This is nothing to us" Naruto shouts. Sakura looks up with worriness.

"Well, at least you enthusiastic-"

"Michiko, are you up" A jonin proctor with a toothpick in mouth asks

"Yes, Genma-sensei" Michiko nods back "I have to go, good luck to you all"

The Hokage gave a speech and then the first fight was between Kiba and Naruto. Everyone assumed Naruto would lose, but Naruto proved them wrong despite his strange tactics. Sasuke was the next one on their team to go, he went against

Sakura eventually fought, she fought against Ino. The fight was boring, it was ended with a draw. The fights continue, most of them ending draws.

Akane leans against the rail, knowing her turn will come soon. The monitor screen begins to runs rapidly through the list of names and comes to a complete halt. Akane stares at the screen reading the names over and over.

"Uzumaki Akane vs Yakushi Kabuto" The joinin proctor with the coughs out.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Hey, it been a while. So, I wrote most of this chapter around three months ago and added the ending yesterday, so yeah it might be a little confusing. I'm trying to update and edit the chapters as I go. And I have no one beta read so its only me to check. Anyways I hope you enjoy this update! Please leave a comment on what I should improve on, it would really help. Anyways see you next time!


	12. Chapter 12- Chunin Exams: part I

Akane walks down to the center of the arena.

She stands face to face with the silver haired teen, who she had met during the written exam. Kabuto was one of the only genins who seemed too friendly during the written exam. He walks forward with a smirk across his face, he pushes his round glassed up his nose bridge.

Akane takes a deep breath, preparing herself. Her body aches from the events from the forest of death. Her body tell her to give up. It pleads for rest, but she knows she cannot. Akane quickly closes her eyes to use her eye's mind to check Kabuto's chakra. He's currently low on chakra.

The sickly looking jonin procter gives a dry cough "Are you both ready?" Both genins nod, the proctor lifted his arm upward "Then let the fight begin" his arm strikes down.

Akane swiftly draws her kunais out, in time to block the shurikens Kabuto threw. He charges forward, his hands glow a light green color, Akane dodges his attacks. She jumps backwards to gain distance, but was too slow. Kabuto's right palm slaps her on her left outer thigh. She stumbles and rolls back to where she tries get up on her feet. Her thigh aches in pain. She pushes herself up but does not notice Kabuto standing in front of her, she jumps to her left, but he smacks her on her left shoulder. She falls back and rolls herself far from him.

"Akane, get up!" Naruto shouts, gripping the metal rail.

"Kakashi sensei, What was that jutsu?" Sakura asks her sensei

"Its medical ninjutsu, though its meant to heal, it also can be used to cause damage to muscle, bone or even ones chakra network" Both genin stare at their sensei in shock.

Naruto turns back look at the arena. Akane lays on the ground trying to push herself up, Kabout seems to be entertained by her attempts "Come Akane! Don't give up!" He shouts.

Akane hears Naruto's shout. She wobbly pushes herself up. Kabuto slowly walks up to her with a smirk across his. "Your a tough one aren't you? Why don't we finish this?"

Kabuto pulla a kunai out and charges at her. Akane tries to dodge his attacks, she feels the sharp sting from the areas he managed to slash her.

Akane again uses her eye's mind to check his chakra level. His chakra lowering along with his stamina, but he was still able to move faster than her. Caught off guard slams his fist into her her rib cage. Akane falls back, a few feet from Kabuto. She grits her teeth, she moves her right hand to get her first aid kit, but she instead she get a hold of something else.

' _These... these are the smoke bombs Naruto gave me. That's it._ ' Akane pushes herself up. She takes a slow deep breath before throwing the smoke bombs. A massive cloud of dark smoke fills the arena.

"Huh, so she's trying to sneak attack. Clever" Kabuto chuckles.

Akane uses her eye's-mind she sees the whole rooms chakra and right in the center is Kabuto ' _found you_ ' she pulls out a scroll as she charges forward.

Shikamaru leans against the metal railing and smirking at the scene "looks like Akane has been hanging out with Naruto a little too much" his comment on the red head causes Asuma to chuckle.

Kakashi leans on the wall ' _Uzumakis, they're all the same whether they like it_ '

The smoke clears through. Akane breathes heavily, tightly holding onto a scroll. Kabuto was tied up with wired shuriken. The wire was wrapped tightly against his skin, drawing out blood.

"The winner is Uzumaki Akane!" The proctor proclaims

Akane falls onto her knees

Naruto jumps over the rail and meets with her in the middle. "I knew you wouldn't lose!'' Naruto helps her limp back to their team.

Upon arrival, Kakashi studies the girl up and down "Go to the medics" Akane protests, but Kakashi was prepared. He had two medics escort her to get treatment. arriving to the medical area, Akane was immediately hugged by Lady Kazumi.

"Lady Kazumi, please let go of me" Akane huffs as the woman crushes her with affection.

"I can't believe how strong you've grown to be" Lady Kazumi chuckles. She lets go of the girl and escorts her to an examination room. She immediately begins to heal her. Akane lays on her back, crying out in pain. "I know it hurts but please keep still" Lady Kazumi continues to heal Akane until she sees the bite marks on her wrist. "Akane, these look recent? How did you even get these?"

Akane grits her teeth "I got them during the Forest of Death. I got them when we fought against some sound shinobi. They started to heal in different times" Akane knew her lie was obvious, but hoped she Lady Kazumi wouldn't press the topic on. She couldn't help, but to hold her breath.

"Alright, just be careful. Bites from other humans can cause major infections to the point of amputation of a limb"

Akane nodded.

As Lady Kazumi finished healing, she notices Akane fell asleep. She smiles.

* * *

Two and a half days later Akane wakes up in the konoha's hospital with Kakashi in her room. Once she was discharged, Kakashi updates her on the chunin exams. Her opponent is a kunoichi from suna who, posses the kekkei genkai of scotch release. Kakashi also informs her on the instructor he assigned her, but wouldn't say who they were which is typical manner of his.

Both shinobi arrive at the training ground, which was the training area where they took the the bell test, Akane notices a a silver hair man standing alongside the three post, facing the hokage face mountain.

"Master Kaito" Kakashi cheerfully greets the man.

The man turns to face them "Kakashi" he walks forward to greet them "So, this little redhead I take is Lady Akane" he smirks

 _'_ _Little redhead'_ Akane eyebrow twitches with annoyance.

Kakashi nods " Akane this is Master Kaito, he is specialist in kinjutsu and water release, he is going to be your instructor for the month you have to train"

Akane studies him. Master Kaito was rather tall and muscular compared to Kakashi, he had short messy silver hair with a strand of hair coming down to the right side of his face to his shoulder, tied together with three blue beads. He wore a simple navy blue short sleeve kimono shirt with mesh underneath along with matching pants, and a light blue obi holding his katana. The man seems familiar to Akane but she cannot recall ever meeting him.

She steps forward and bows "It will be a pleasure to be under your tutelage Master Kaito"

"My my Akamari sure has drilled manners in to your head"

Akane eyes widen, head snaps up.

He knew her mother.

"Well then, I guess I'll leave you both to train. Good luck" Kakashi poofed aways he always did

"Alright let's start training" Master Kaito said, smirking once again.

* * *

Akane knew training with Master Kaito would be difficult.

Hell the man himself teaches the ANBU kinjutsu, not just ordinary shinobi but the elite.

On the first day, after meeting him. Master Kaito, out of the blue, kicked her into the pond nearby and started to attack her with taijutsu. He had done this to force herself to learn how to walk on water while keeping up with him. Once balanced on the water's surface Master Kaito stopped attacking and moved on to teach her chakra nature.

He hands her a small square sheet of paper. He tells her to infuse her chakra into the paper to see her chakra nature. The paper began to become soggy. Her chakra nature was water, which wasn't a surprise to Master Kaito. And this was when the training became more difficult.

Akane stood in the middle of the pond, her task was to create waves in the water. The water's surface ripples as she infuses her water chakra. Sweat drenched her clothing, she makes more progress.

The following days Akane made a wave big enough to knock an opponent down. Master Kaito watches from afar. He knew she was a fast learner and with the large chakra reserves, she will be able to use multiple water jutsus.

Akane floats on the water's surface. Her muscles ache from the large amounts of chakra use.

the exams would be in one weeks.

She watches the clouds drift away from the blue sky. Master Kaito walks over to her, he gazes down at her.

"You should take a break, lady Akane"

Akane frowns.

"I don't need a break and stop calling me 'lady'." Akane grunts . "I'm not a lady".

Master Kaito snorts.

Akane pushes herself up onto the water surface and stands up straight.

"Well, you are from a noble clan. And if I remember correctly, the term 'lady' is used for women of a noble clan. You're already a genin and soon to be chunin. It's time for you to take responsibility for your clan."

Akane looks up at the sky. There are birds flying above them. Singing, soaring through the sky.

"I understand that you're young, but you have a duty to fulfil."

 _'_ _A duty'_. Akane hadn't put much thought in becoming the head of her clan, a clan almost extinct. She barely knows anything about the clan except for its downfall. She just wants to be a kunoichi just like her mother. _Did her mother go through similar thoughts as her?_

"Lady Akane, you know your sulking"

Akane stares at him with annoyance.

Master Kaito chuckles "On the topic of Uzumakis, you should visit your teammate. The weird blond one. He's in the hospital. From what I can tell it's from chakra exhaustion"

Akane frowns _'Of course he did'._

 _"_ Let's call it a day. Tomorrow we can train on your sensory technique"

* * *

Akane heads home to change out of her wet clothing. She showers and changes into a purple hoodie along with white shorts and fishnet stockings underneath.

She walks down the crowded road. The chunin exams have brought many vendors from outside the village. Looking around the surrounding, Akane finds Sakura standing in front of the Yamanaka Flower shop. Akane narrows her eyes, she hopes that Sakura doesn't notice her. Sakura was and still is a fangirl, but she knows that Sakura has changed since the Land of Waves mission and the Forest of Death. She has grown stronger and has become more didn't see herself becoming friends with the pink haired girl.

"Akane!"

Akane eyes widen. "Good afternoon, Sakura" she bows.

"Akane, where are you heading to?" Sakura smiles

"I'm heading to the hospital. I'm going to visit Naruto"

"Really, Ino and I were about to head there. We should go together" Sakura smiles again

Akane nods

"Hey, Sakura, I'm ready" Ino runs out of the flower shop with a bouquet of flowers. She sees Sakura and the redhead. " Akane?"

"Good afternoon, Ino" Akane bows

"She's coming with us to visit Naruto and the others" Sakura answer

"Oh, okay" Ino smiles "Sorry, it's that you don't really hang with anyone. Well except for Naruto"

"It's understandable"

"Alright then let's get going!"

* * *

Naruto lays flat in a deep sleep on top the white hospital bed. Warm rays of the sun shines onto his face from the nearby window.

The window clicks open, the pale blue curtains dance to the sudden breeze.

A figure in a dark cloak with red pattern quietly creeps over the unconscious blond as to not wake him.

"Naruto, you've grown so much." Slender hands caress over the boys wisker cheeks "Hopefully Jiraiya will help you get stronger" The figure leans over and gently places a kiss on Naruto's forehead

"There is a group of shino-"

"Naruto?" Akane walks in the room. She finds Naruto lying asleep on the bed. She sees the curtains whipping through the air. ' _Damn wind'_ Akane closes the windows. She hears footsteps coming from a distance.

"Akane?"

Akane turns around to find Shikamaru standing in the doorway.

"Shikamaru, you came to visit Naruto?"

"Well, more like told. Asuma-sensei told me to visit." Shikamaru sighs "What a drag." Shikamaru takes a seat on the chair right next to Naruto's bed " Man, I don't know what this idiot was thinking. We have one weeks until the final exams, but I could care less."

Akane eyebrow twitches. If Shikamaru wasn't so lazy, he would have ranked top of their class. He also was one of the very few who didn't ignore or treat Naruto poorly during the academy.

Shikamaru leans back into the chair making himself comfortable "So, I heard you're training with Master Kaito"

"Yes, I am. How do you know?" Akane looks at the lazy Nara wondering how he will respond

"Well, I heard my dad talk about it" He shrugs "So, how wasit"

' _Of course, both Master Kaito and Shikamaru's father work directly for the Hokage'_ Akane open her mouth say something, but instead sneezes _. 'I better not have catch a cold'_ Shikamaru pass her the box of tissue from the small table next to him. _"_ At first it was intense, but it is much harder than the training I do with Kakashi."

"Yeah I bet, I heard your against the kunoichi from suna, the one who has the scorch release, had any thoughts of how to fight her-"

"Shikamaru?" the two genins turn to the bed. Naruto has finally woke up. The blond snaps back up. "How long have I been in here for!? He shouts, pushing the covers of of his body.

"Hey, relax. You've only been in here for a week and a half" Shikamaru grunts

"Yeah, but when are the final exams start!?"

"The final exam start one week from now" Akane sighs, does he always have to over react?

The blond pauses for a moment "Oh, okay" he chirps

Akane and Shikamaru heavy sigh.

The genins stay and talk in Naruto's room until the nurse came to check up on him, which didn't take long. The nurse left the room to start the discharge paper. Akane dismissed herself from the boys. While the walking down the hall she met up with Ino and Sakura.

"Hey, Akane" Sakura smiles "Lee and Hinata are still hospitalised. We were thinking about bring them food, but Ino and I suck at cooking. I was wondering, since I heard Naruto said you are good at cooking… could you help us?" both Sakura and Ino gave the redhead a pleading look.

Lee and Hinata, both genin badly injured. Hinata Hyuga is very shy, she wasn't the strongest of their class, but she had potential. She was While she barely knew lee, he fought against the sand

Akane agrees, both girls cheer.

* * *

Akane wakes to the warm rays of sunlight beaming onto her face. It's today, The Chunin exam finals. She pulls her blanket over her head giving herself five more minutes of rest. in the bed sits up, stretching her arms upward. She gets out of bed and quickly makes it. She then walks to the kitchen and prepares her breakfast.

"Itadakimasu" Akane eats her fish and rice. After eating, she continues her usual routine.

Akane opens her closet, pulling out her clothing. It was a new outfit similar to the one she wore before. It was a lilac sleeved kimono blouse with violet trim. She wears it similar to the one she wore before, fishnet shirt and stocking, navy blue obi and spandex. Akane then ties bandages on her left wrist, hiding the bite marks.

Before she leaves she knees now in front of her parents photo. ' _Wish me luck' with that Akane leaves her home_

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

If you want to see our little redhead then head to my tumblr. I drew a drawing of her and I will also upload the drawings of other Original Characters as well.


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